Awakened
by delena1997
Summary: Waking up to a whole new world is hard - no matter how long you've lived surrounded by it. With Elena in transition how will everyone cope now that the one thing they tried hardest to protect her from is becoming a reality? So many questions are left unanswered - will she turn? Will she choose? What kind of vampire will Elena be?
1. Flashes

Images flashed before her eyes. Water. Always water. Her mother lifeless in front of her and her father holding her gaze with regret in his eyes. _Flash._ A crazed Stefan forcing her blood and threatening to hurl her off Wickery Bridge. _Flash. _A glimpse of blonde hair and a screech of tyres before water filled the cab. More water. Always water. _Flash. _Icy blue eyes laughing and dancing in the firelight._ Flash. _The same eyes but full of sorrow and pain._ Flash. _A cocky smirk and a sarcastic laugh._ Flash. _Then nothing. A stretch of darkness and overwhelming silence, broken only by the gentle thud of a heartbeat.

* * *

He raced towards the hospital, driving faster than anyone thought possible. He growled as the engine whined in protest, he knew it couldn't keep it up much longer. He swerved angrily to the side of the road and abandoned his car. He could run faster, he could get to her faster than a car.

He counted the seconds, each going painfully slow yet painfully fast. Slow because as each ticked by he was still not by her side, he was still not there. Fasts because with each passing second he knew the life was draining out of her somewhere. Somewhere he wasn't.

He had promised not to leave her, and he wouldn't. He would stay by her side but she hadn't promised not to leave him. She was leaving him. The details were lost on him, no phone call had come through alerting him. Either she was alone or they did not want him to snap. They didn't know he had held his once best friend as the life drained out of him, and with him, the life drained out of her.

He hadn't talked to her since he had left the previous night, Stefan had returned to her. He had insisted. He had seen no room for argument, Elena needed her rock, she had needed the one who had saved her from herself. She needed Stefan – or that's what Stefan had said.

He thought otherwise. She needed someone secure? He could be secure. Sometimes. Whether or not he was wasn't the question, the question was: Every time she was in danger, every time she wanted to risk her life – who had saved her?

He had.

Over the months when Stefan had been on his Ripper tour of the U.S Damon had fought to keep her alive. He was willing to act impulsively and earn her hatred as long as she stayed alive to hate him.

It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

In the distance he could hear sirens wailing as they left to tend to an emergency. He could hear heart monitors beeping insistently as they flat lined. He could hear the low thump of heartbeats, whether strong or faint, regular or erratic. They were there. Their hearts were still beating, families had hopes and chances at goodbyes. He strained his ears to listen for her heartbeat. The one heartbeat that mattered.

It was there. So faint it was overrun by the sounds of others. Her heartbeat. It was their, the once steady rhythm forcing her body to work. It was small comfort to know she was there, he was within seconds of her. He raced through the halls, not focusing on where he was going or the signs on the walls but the slow, sound of her blood pumping through her veins.

It faltered for a second – just a moment, but a moment that had anyone who could hear on edge. He could hear no one else. No comforting voices or familiar heartbeats. No soft breathing – not from her, not from anyone. She wouldn't be alone. She would be surrounded by those who loved her, those without heartbeats. Those who lived, and some had died to protect her.

He caught a glance of a sign on the doors he was about to burst through and his still heart stopped beating and his breath caught in his throat.

_No._

As the doors swung open her heartbeat faltered and stopped. He fell to his knees beside her and stoked her hair and pressed his forehead against hers. He knew his eyes gave all his emotions away but the one person who knew that was lying in front of him. He was glad. Glad she didn't have to see his pain or live in his anguish. No tears fell from his eyes, his grief was too deep for tears to help. He knew his brother sat near him, in a similar state.

"Elena." he whispered brokenly.

Of course there was no reply.

"Damon?" A voice came from behind him. One he couldn't bare to hear.

He tore his gaze away from her face and locked onto the sad eyed doctor.

"Damon. When she was brought in here earlier-" she broke off, seemingly trying to find the right words. He moved his gaze away from her and stared at Elena, willing her to be okay.

"-cerebral haemorrhage. I- I- I had to-" his head snapped up.

"What?" his voice wasn't broken anymore. It was just... empty. It was devoid of all emotion.

"Bleeding on the brain. I-" she looked away, her eyes wide with regret. "She needed my help, Damon."

She left the room only pausing slightly at the door, her eyes begging him to understand the implications.

"She needed my help."

It clicked. She had helped her. She had healed her with vampire blood. He froze internally. His blood. This was worse than the original outcome. This explained the absence of people. He had lost her, only for her to come back and be torn away from him again.

He cupped her face with his hands and leant his forehead against hers once more.

"I love you." a single tear escaped the iron-strong grip on his emotions. He dropped a kiss on her forehead and used his thumb to wipe away the drip on her cheek.

"Wake up." he whispered to her. He just needed a goodbye, just a few words to tell her how much she meant. To tell her everything.

"Wake up."

* * *

A shuddering gasp escaped her lips as she struggled to control the rage of emotions that washed over her.

She felt a tight grip on one of her hands and strong hands cupping her face.

Her eyes flew open and she was met with icy blue ones. Her breathing steadied to a normal pace as she locked onto his gaze.

The grip on her hand tightened and as she turned she was met with a pair of worried green eyes. She vaguely registered the difference in their gazes. Each was anguished, wallowing in a private sorrow but the pain in Damon's... It was deeper, as if it went right through him to the very core of his soul.

She sat up and looked around, her breathing coming faster as she processed where she was.

She gently freed her hand from Stefan's gasp and pulled her knees up to comfort herself. She felt damp, as though she had been out in the rain too long. Why was she damp?

The lake. She hugged her knees tighter to herself refusing to cry. She buried her face into her knees.

Three times she had been on that bridge with a chance of death. Three times too many. Too many times in her short lifetime.

Despite her protests tears leaked out her eyes and soaked her jeans. She felt an arm wind around her shaking form and pull her close. She breathed deeply, trying to focus. Someone dropped a kiss on her temple as their hand stroked her hair.

She turned her head and pressed her face against something warm, hard and clad in leather. Damon's arms tightened around her as more tears escaped.

Suddenly, she pulled back.

"The car. The bridge. Rebekah. Matt." her words tumbled out of her mouth incoherently as Damon's hands reached out to cup her face again.

"Elena. It's okay. It's okay. Matt's fine."

She nodded, as she battled to keep the flood of emotions under control. "What happened to me?"

She was almost scared of the answers. The look in Damon's eyes told her it wasn't good. Only one possibility became clear to her. She raised a shaking hand to her face to cover one of Damon's.

Stefan rubbed soothing circles on her back as she fought to keep her words in. If she said it, it became real.

"I- I-" she couldn't make her mouth form coherent sentences, only a jumbled string of words fell from her mouth. "No-"

Damon shared a look with Stefan, their faces set in a grim line.

"Elena, come here." Damon's voice was soft and gentle. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into the hollow between his neck a shoulder. His arms held her tightly as one of his hands slowly stroked her hair.

He slowly leant back and took her face between his hands. She was so close she could see the tears clinging to his eyelashes.

"You're gonna be fine. I promise you. You're gonna be fine."

She repeated it over and over to herself like a mantra. If she said it enough times it would come true.

"Damon-" she managed to choke out. Her throat seemed to have stopped working. "What happened to me?"

His eyes were so full of pain it broke her heart just a little bit more. His anguish seemed to radiate out through his eyes overwhelming those who cared enough to look.

He stroked her cheekbone with his thumb with eyes so full of regret she almost wanted to comfort him to take away his pain.

"You died, Elena."

* * *

_Hey! New Story!_

_Woo._

_Okay, I have I think three other stories with the first chapter written but I'm going to leave those in the works until I get up to chapter 5 done. Let me know what you think of this. I'll try my hardest to make it different from 'The New Life' and I do have some ideas to take it in a completely different direction. _

_This is the only chapter written so far for this fic so you'll have to bear with me until I get it started. _

_I'm going on holiday for a couple days tomorrow but I'll be back Thursday afternoon. Share the love guys, read me other stories!_

_-E _


	2. Don't Freak Out

"_Elena, come here." Damon's voice was soft and gentle. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into the hollow between his neck and shoulder. His arms held her tightly as one of his hands slowly stroked her hair. _

_He slowly leant back and took her face between his hands. She was so close she could see the tears clinging to his eyelashes._

"_You're gonna be fine. I promise you. You're gonna be fine." _

* * *

Elena's breathing was speeding up and becoming laboured as her face took on a worryingly pale shade of white. The chalky look overcoming her olive coloured skin was all it took for him to sweep her up into his arms. She had to be at home, somewhere where he knew what could help her, somewhere she was comfortable.

Stefan stood abruptly, as if to stop him. He shot a glare at his brother, who thinking better of his actions went for the door, holding it open for him to pass through.

As they passed their eyes locked. Stefan's gaze widened only slightly as the green looked into his blue. He could see the pain hidden beneath the icy indifference and constant sarcasm. He couldn't do it right now, he couldn't fight his brother over the girl he loved with every fibre of his being when she was slipping away from him. From them.

Thankfully, the morgue's exit was on ground level, leaving their way to the car clear avoiding any questions about why previously dead Elena Gilbert was now breathing and being snuck away by a teenager and his older, debatably psychotic - depending on who you asked - brother. He almost scoffed at how strange this situation would look. If Elena had been up to it, he would have cracked some joke and she would have rolled her eyes and smacked him. The ache in his chest nestled that little bit deeper, he breathed deeply, trying to find some source of calm in this ever raging storm.

His eyes widened as Stefan slipped into the driver's seat and started the engine with a blank expression. He made a mental note to check on him once-

Once everything was over.

He slipped into the beck seat, throwing a glance at Stefan clearly saying 'you scratch, mark, damage or break my car in anyway and I will stake you myself'.

He held Elena in his arms, her slow, shallow breathing a contradictory comfort to him. He stared at her face, knowing that she wouldn't turn. She wouldn't become the thing she'd been fighting against for so long.

It didn't matter that Klaus was dead – without him, she would be free to turn with him as a danger – this was something she didn't want.

He leant his head back against the window, slowly twisting his mind around the idea of a world without her in it. He breathed out shakily. Yes, he was crazy and impulsive. Yes, he had killed people. Yes, he had arrived in this damn town with the intent of ruining his brother's life but he loved her. He loved her to the very core of his existence. With her gone, he had nothing worth living for.

Stefan was too far gone to simply jump back on the wagon. And without Lexi? He suppressed a groan. It was his own damn fault, maybe with Lexi here Stefan would actually stand a chance.

He smiled ever so slightly as his mind wandered to their trip to Georgia, his memory coming crashing down around him as Elena took a deep shuddering breath.

How long did he have with her? He couldn't call Caroline to find out. He just couldn't. He couldn't make the blonde suffer any more than she already had tonight. He couldn't call her and tell her her best friend was dying in the way her father had only weeks ago.

He winced at the word 'dying'. He couldn't go there yet, somewhere far inside him he was deep in denial, unable to process that Elena Gilbert would either transition... or die.

He shuddered at the thought he they pulled up outside the Boarding House and scooped her up into his arms, lending her silent comfort while he tried to pull himself together to stop himself from falling apart.

He laid her gently on one of the twin sofas and sat down heavily his head buried in his hands. Stefan mirrored his position on the other sofa, dark thoughts clearly running through both of their heads.

"It's my fault." came Stefan's voice. It was steady and quiet.

He rolled his eyes. "Not everything is your fault Stef." he reasoned. He couldn't deal with martyr Stefan right now.

He shook his head, his eyes heavy and laced with guilt. "When the car went over the bridge-"

He stopped talking as he saw his shocked expression. "Again?" he breathed almost silently, mostly to himself. Nature, fate and sheer coincidence had succeeded in almost killing her more times than the supernatural had.

Stefan nodded regretfully. "I went in, she was- she was still conscious. I could have gotten her out safely but-" his voice finally cracked, the exterior crumbling on his indifferent attitude.

His heart sank like a stone. "You could have gotten her out." he echoed in a voice like death.

Stefan nodded.

He struggled to reign in his anger, his overwhelming anger at his brother – who had sworn to protect her – his anger that he had let her just die?

"So what?" he spoke emotionlessly, "You just left her there so she'd have to deal with this shitty transition _and_ have to go through so much emotional bullshit _and_ deal with your fucking guilt?"

Stefan said nothing. He wanted him to be mad, wanted him to explain, wanted him to say something. Not just sit there and act like everything was okay.

"I told him to." he turned his head to look at Elena, masking his emotions behind the impenetrable icy wall he knew his eyes would become.

She was curled up on one end of the sofa and was looking at him pleadingly. "I told him to save Matt." she shrugged, "So he did."

He groaned and downed his bourbon. "Jesus Christ Stefan! You couldn't have at least saved her first?" He clenched his jaw tight. He wouldn't lash out, not with Elena like this. Not when this might be the only chance he'd get at any form of goodbye.

He dropped his gaze and crashed his head onto his hands once more.

A hand touched his face gently forcing him to look at her "Don't look so sad." she whispered softly.

He stared at her, all the hidden emotion rushing into his gaze as he looked into her eyes. He couldn't hide the anguish he had hidden there. He might never see those eyes again. He had seen every emotion shown through them ranging from anger and hatred to laughter and happiness and the occasional hint of what could be love.

"Please." she whispered, leaning her forehead against his upper arm. He reached an arm out to stroke her hair away from her face hesitantly, painfully aware of Stefan only a few feet away.

"I can't help it." he uttered so softly Stefan would have to strain to hear him.

She leant back against the cushions with her eyes closed. He stood up as he heard his phone chiming from the car. He should leave them alone... to work it out or say goodbye or whatever.

He pressed a kiss on her forehead and whispered a soft. "Be right back." before disappearing out the door, away from the girl who had successfully turned him into a rage of turmoil and pain all while making him fall in love with her.

* * *

She breathed quietly, trying to fight the constant dizziness and pounding in her head that had appeared in the last twenty minutes.

They sat in silence, looking anywhere but each other until Stefan sat down gently next to her.

"You don't have to do this. You don't have to turn."

She nodded, slightly irritated. She _knew _she didn't have to turn. She had a mind of her own, and a heart she had to follow. She was sick of being treated like a doll and wrapped up in bubble wrap. She could make her own decisions and she could take the consequences.

She wasn't a child but she wasn't as old as Damon or Stefan by an means but that didn't mean she hadn't gone through enough in the past years to call her own shots. She had lost more people than most people do by the time they're forty.

She sighed. "I know."

Tense silence followed. "You need to decide, Elena."

She looked at him sharply, catching the double meaning immediately. "What's to say I haven't?"

* * *

"Hey." he answered quietly to a sobbing Caroline.

"Damon. Damon. Matt and Elena-" she sobbed hysterically. "They drove of Wickery Bridge. No one knows where she is, and Stefan and Bonnie won't answer my calls! I've already lost Tyler and Matt's still critical and I can't see him to heal him with my blood. I can't lose anyone else. Not today."

He didn't know when it happened but somewhere along the line he started caring for people other than Elena. The blonde sobbing on the other end of the line was too much for him. He hadn't wanted to tell her, she'd wanted to save her the pain, as well as himself. If he had to tell people it just made it more real.

"Caroline. Shh. It's okay."

She quietened, sensing he had something relevant to add.

"Don't freak out okay, Barbie?" he took a deep breath. This was it. The last barrier of denial. The last line to cross before it truly became real.

"Elena's in transition."

* * *

_A/N: I really like this story... go on. review. you know you want to. ;)_


	3. The Elephants In The Room

"Hey." he answered quietly to a sobbing Caroline.

"Damon. Damon. Matt and Elena-" she sobbed hysterically. "They drove of Wickery Bridge. No one knows where she is, and Stefan and Bonnie won't answer my calls! I've already lost Tyler and Matt's still critical and I can't see him. I can't lose anyone else. Not today."

He don't know when it happened but somewhere along the line he started caring for people other than Elena. The blonde sobbing on the other end of the line was too much for him. She hadn't wanted to tell her, she'd wanted to save her the pain, as well as himself. F he had to tell people it just made it more real.

"Caroline. Shh. It's okay."

She quietened, sensing he had something relevant to add.

"Don't freak out okay Barbie?" he took a deep breath. This was it. The last barrier of denial. The last line to cross before it truly became real.

"Elena's in transition."

* * *

She silently left the parlour, not wanting to feel Stefan's questioning gaze on her any longer. She barely made it to the guest room before her battle with gravity ended and she stumbled onto the bed, the dizziness consuming her every movement and preventing her from shifting her way through the turmoil of her emotions.

One desperately morbid thought stuck out from the rest of them.

So this was out it ended.

Dead or a vampire. Neither seemed so bad if she thought hard enough.

She closed her eyes, willing the pain to fade, just for a second. She hadn't imagined it like this. She'd never imagined being in transition or feeling this way. She was questioning _everything. _Everything she'd once believed was now being called into question by one man.

She wouldn't even say his name. She couldn't.

Her heart thudded loudly in her chest, and she realised with a shock she could hear her heartbeat. She'd never talked to either brother about transitioning. She'd never talked to Caroline – she hadn't thought she'd need to know.

A burning sensation in the back of her throat caught her attention along with a gnawing hunger growing in her stomach. She squeezed her eyes closed and willed it to go away.

She wasn't against being a vampire, not one like Damon or Caroline anyway but her hesitation stemmed from the horror and pain Stefan had caused. Her heart clenched as she remembered the trail of bodies he had left up and down the eastern sea board and halfway across America. She shuddered. Killing so many people...

They would have had families – wives, husbands, kids. Brothers, sisters, aunt, uncles. So many people that would miss them and be cursing the heavens as to why they were taken from them. She knew the last part well – she had spent weeks in her room after her parents passed cursing some unknown power for taking them away while she was allowed to survive. She had deduced it was for Jeremy, no god, no matter how cruel or spiteful would take away a sixteen year old's whole family.

A new thought struck her; Jeremy.

She couldn't leave him. She wouldn't leave him. She had escaped death on that bridge the first time and now, with a chance to live again she wasn't going to throw it away because of a improbable fear. She took a deep, calming breath.

There was no mind-blowing epiphany about her decision. She was doing was felt right. She had always been one to follow her head to do what was right but when it came to her heart she was in total battle.

She rolled over and pressed her face against the pillow, mulling over ever decision, every action that had lead her to this point.

She wasn't thinking about turning anymore. She had another decision, one that was harder in many ways, yes easier in so many others.

She sighed. Stefan was sweet and good and pure with a danger streak that could wipe out hundreds of people in a single tantrum. If she craved normalcy and security so much then why had the person she thought gave her that upped and left?

With every day a new reason came to mind about why _not. _She had said to herself it was because she had fallen for him immediately, because it was easy and simple but was that was a relationship was all about? Taking the easy road because you're too afraid or lazy to try harder?

She half-smirked. Her relationship... friendship... with Damon had been anything but simple. It had been reckless and crazy and spotted with patches of grey where they weren't speaking and the occasional spark when she would give in to him.

But underneath everything, underneath the cool, hard, cocky exterior she knew him just as he knew her. A slight quirk of his eyebrows and his cocky attitude might send the wrong message but to anyone who looked closely enough say that his eyes always held a different story.

He was good deep down, hidden by his unfortunate drinking habits and killing sprees. He was sweet and funny and passionate. He loved with abandon, not giving up on what he wants.

He had never once given up on her, or on their friendship.

With all the good there was in him there was his ruthless streak a mile wide, he wouldn't be Damon without the occasional snapped neck and drinking binge.

She closed her eyes and rubbed her face slowly.

If she could think like that, and lay all her thoughts out then why was she so torn?

She groaned. It was because she didn't want Stefan to lose it and go on a killing spree up west coast America this time.

So that was it. Every shade of denial wiped away, her feelings laid bare for her to see them. It came down to what she wanted in her heart and what she wanted in her head. It came down to preventing the deaths of hundreds. Head versus heart. She knew which would win.

She'd spent long enough fighting it, even with her damn heightened emotions she could see that. She sighed, she was glad in some ways she was in transition. She cringed at the thought that she may never have been able to step back and actually think about it with no interruptions.

She swung her legs of the bed and made for the door before a new wave of dizziness washed over her and had her fighting to keep her balance. She lost and stumbled into the wall before crashing onto the ground.

She winced as she heard the thump. Within seconds, Damon was by her side with concerned eyes with Stefan not far behind him.

"You okay? Still kickin'?" Damon asked quietly in a poor attempt to mask his worry.

She rolled her eyes and prodded him gently. "Just help me up."

He smiled softly at her as he pulled her to her feet carefully before stepping back slightly. She pressed the base of her palm to the middle of her forehead. "Am I supposed to be this dizzy?"

Damon nodded and looked at Stefan curiously when he shook his head. "Everyone's transition is different. I was very nauseous but not so much dizzy." he shrugged slightly.

Damon frowned. "You never mentioned that. I always thought everyone was the same."

Elena cocked her head curiously to the side. "What about you?" she asked despite herself.

"Spitting headache and I was so dizzy I could barely walk straight." he smirked at her. "Sound familiar?"

She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. She smiled brightly when the pain shielding his eyes lifted slightly.

Stefan shifted his weight and awkwardly coughed. "I think we need to address the elephant in the room."

Damon snorted. "Which elephant exactly? If I recall there are a couple." he shot out, as quick as ever.

Stefan rolled his eyes in sync with her which caused him to chuckle softly. "C'mon. We'll go downstairs – it's warmer."

She smiled gratefully as goosebumps erupted over her skin. Stefan tactfully left the room, or maybe be accident, but hey. He left.

Damon stroked her hair back from her face and smiled at her, a break in his pain more obvious now than earlier.

"I need to go get your annoying blonde friend. No way am I risking the citizens of Mystic Falls' lives by letting her drive around in her state." he said dryly.

She quirked her eyebrow. "Does she know?"

He nodded before cupping her face with his hands. "Promise me something?"

She rose her eyebrows slightly, only nodding in reply.

"I'll be back, in a hour – max. _Please _don't decide anything life changing while I'm not here?"

She smiled and snorted. "Like that's stopped me before."

He shook his head. "You're becoming too much like me."

"Fine. Promise." she said reluctantly. She didn't want to have this conversation right now, it could wait an hour.

He dropped a kiss into her hair and flashed her a brief smirk. "See you later, Elena."

Twenty minutes later she was seated on the sofa, slowly dropping off to sleep.

"Elena?" Stefan's voice roused her gently.

"Mmhm?" she murmured.

"Is it okay with you if I go for a shower?"

She smiled slightly. "It's your house Stefan. Go for it."

He smiled at her but his eyes were sad. He darted across the room and pressed a kiss to her hair. "I won't be long."

"M'kay." she mumbled, sleep dropping down on her making her eyelids heavy.

* * *

The shrill ringing of the doorbell woke her sharply, crashing her back down to reality.

She reluctantly uncurled from her position by the fire and went to the door and without thinking what she was doing opened it to a young man on the doorstep.

"Good morning. Would you be interested in-" his words were lost on her as the thick, tempting sound of his blood pumping through his veins drowned them out.

She took a step closer unwillingly her mind trying to find reasons why she shouldn't drink from him. Why not? Just one drink...

She snapped out of her trance as she noticed the man's unnerved gaze. "Miss?"

She cocked her head and smiled her most seductive smile as she stepped closer. She couldn't bare to hear the hot, wet sound any longer.

She lunged forward, and tore out his neck.


	4. Addressing The Elephants

"_Good morning. Would you be interested in-" his words were lost on her as the thick, tempting sound of his blood pumping through his veins drowned them out._

_She took a step closer unwillingly her mind trying to find reasons why she shouldn't drink from him. Why not? Just one bite..._

_She snapped out of her trance as she noticed the man's unnerved gaze. "Miss?" _

_She cocked her head and smiled her most seductive smile as she stepped closer. She couldn't bare to heat the hot, wet sound any longer._

_She lunged forward, and tore out his neck._

Suddenly there was no more liquid running into her mouth. There was only dead wait in her arms as the dead man lay there unmoving. She dropped him and raised a shaking hands to her face, feelings the veins and fangs that had appeared there.

She had killed someone.

Her breathing came faster and faster as the reality soaked in. she didn't even know his name – he would have friends, family. A wife, maybe even a kid. And she had killed him without a second thought.

She was a vampire.

She had killed someone.

Before she knew where she was going she was collapsed against a tree in the woods behind the Boarding House crying out her pain, and regret fighting to keep that switch on.

* * *

"Elena?" he yelled as he pulled into the driveway vaguely aware of the door wide open. He slid out of the car and froze, his vampire instinct immediately kicking in.

He had left Caroline at her house after all, she'd said she'd drop by later once Elena was 'cool with it'. He had shrugged it off, eager to get back to her. He didn't like leaving her alone, not now, not ever.

He edged gingerly into the house, afraid of what he might see. His imagination running from Elena have turned and over indulged to Stefan back on a blood high.

What he say was worse.

A young man, no older than thirty lying dead in the hallway of his house with his throat torn out in the way only a new vampire can. Stefan has next to no control but this? This was the bite of a newborn.

He cursed violently as he heard running water.

"STEFAN!" he roared at the top of his lungs. The water stopped followed by the scrambling of what sounded like a towel.

He appeared moments later with a towel wrapped around his hips, soaking wet hair and wide eyes.

"Wha-" he stopped dead in his tracks taking in the dead body.

"You went for a fucking _shower?_" he hissed angrily.

Stefan opened his mouth like a goldfish looking rather comical. "I- I-"

Damon shook his head disbelievingly. He'd been slowly warming up to the idea that Elena might turn but now? Now that she had? He was scared for her. He remembered his emotions after he had turned, they were haywire especially after he remembered the compulsion-

Shit.

He charged out the door, following what he hoped was her scent towards the woods. "Bury that body, Stefan!" he yelled over his shoulder.

* * *

She stayed there, huddled against the tree trying to writher away from the first beams of sunlight that were breaking through the early morning sun.

She really hadn't thought this through. Now she was a vampire, trapped in the rising sun with no one knowing where she way.

She breathed deeply and tried to calm down but all that filled her mind was the way Isobel had looked that last day of her life, surrounded by yellow orange flames as she gladly met the sun.

She whipped around as the sound of cracking leaves, amplified with both her vampire senses and the pre-dawn silence, startled her from her thoughts.

"Damon?" she gasped. She had never been so relieved to see him. Not through everything with Klaus, not even every time he saved her.

She launched herself into his arms as the tears began to fall. "I killed him." she whispered brokenly.

He stayed silent, holding her tight and stroking her hair ready to soothe her until the tears stopped falling. But of course, they had to time for that.

The sun rose, just a fraction higher into the sky finally landing some of it's rays on her sky. She hissed and cried out in pain as the skin blistered and burned and healed within ten seconds. She stared at the new skin in wonder only to be pulled aside and roughly forced to look into a pair of sparkling blue eyes.

"Elena. Elena." he said roughly. "Dammit, Elena!" he shouted at her. She snapped into focus, gazing into his eyes, noticing the pain that was still hidden within their depths.

"I want you to run. Right now. As fast as you can straight to the Boarding House. Okay?"

She began shaking her head. "Elena. Please. I won't lose you. Not like this." he whispered pleadingly.

She looked frantically between the pain in his eyes and the rising sun, only hesitating for a fraction of a second before running, as only a vampire can, towards the safety of the shadows.

She was only in the harmful glare for a handful of seconds but each last a lifetime as a thousand tiny needles burned into her skin. It felt like she had burnt herself on boiling water, as if she had jumped into a roasting tub, only it was amplified.

She was fast, but Damon, who had over a century and a half on her raced ahead of her throwing open the door to allow her easy passage.

She raced into the hallway, shrinking backwards into the wall as sunlight streamed in. It was this that finally broke her, finally letting all her emotion at turning out. The sun, the thing she'd grown up loving, was her enemy.

Suddenly, the room was cast into darkness as Damon shut the door heavily before collapsing next to her.

Silence stretched between them.

"I'm sorry." he finally muttered.

She stared at him incredulously. Was he honestly apologising? She shook her head softly.

"Why?"

* * *

"I'm sorry." he murmured softly. It was his fault, at least indirectly. He'd actually trusted Stefan to look after her but no, bunny boy had gone for a shower, leaving good little Elena to answer the door. He fought the urge to roll his eyes.

She shook her head softly, her eyes wide and honest. "Why?" she said simply.

He brushed her hair back form her face like he'd done so many times in the last few hours.

"Do you want everything I'm sorry for or just the specifics?"

She chuckled tightly, her eyes lighting up. "Just go for it." she said quietly.

"I'm sorry you're hurting, Elena." It was the most sincere words he'd ever spoken. Every tiny, fragment of pain she'd had to go through the past few years weighed heavily on her heart and no matter how she tried to hide it, he saw. He always saw.

She looked at him with big eyes, her mouth slightly open.

He shrugged slightly reaching over and closing her mouth. "I can be nice y'know. Don't look so shocked."

She smiled and leant against him so his arm automatically wound around her. She closed her eyes, leaning her head against his shoulder.

He felt her tense suddenly and her eyes shot open. He looked down at her, cupping her cheek with his free hand. "You okay?"

Her eyes were bright, clearer than they had been a moment ago. She had a spark there, some of their old warmth seeping back into them.

She stood up and smiled brightly. Her smile was so infectious, it just made you feel all warm inside. He frowned slightly, well that was probably just him.

She wandered casually upstairs so she was lounging outside his door. He rose one eyebrow sceptically. What are you up to? He thought suspiciously.

She seemed to be fighting some inner battle because he saw the moment she gave up. She shrugged her shoulders in a 'what the hell' kind of way and walking into his bedroom.

He smirked as he leant against his doorframe as she crashed out onto his bed.

"And what do you think you're doing?" he asked in a laughing tone.

"Sleeping." she said, coyly turning her head.

He shook his head and made himself comfortable next to her, and comfortable for him meant he was taking his shirt off.

She rolled her eyes and buried her face into the pillow.

He lay down next to her, trying to figure out what game she was playing. He closed his eyes briefly, focusing on the sound of her breathing, relief surging through him that she was actually breathing.

He hadn't had the chance to fully comprehend that Elena, _Elena, _was a vampire. She was alive, she was breathing, she was still Elena. He smiled as rolled over to face her with a smile on his face.

The smile slipped the second he saw the pain clouding her eyes. No matter how hard you try to hide it there I always just a hint in the background.

So this was her game: she was playing his game. Distraction: 101. He snorted to himself – he wasn't making it easy for her.

"We have to talk about this, Elena."

Elena froze, he'd clearly interrupted some mental torrent of emotions.

"We do?" she moaned.

"Elena. We do."

Her eyes grew sad, so sad it pierced another stabbing pain through his heart. He hated she was hurting, he hated she was a vampire, he hated she was going to have to live like this forever.

She sighed, sitting up slowly before pulling off her jeans and slipping her t-shirt over her head. Her shoes were already discarded on the floor.

"What are you doing?" he scoffed as she pulled his dark t-shirt over his head.

"Addressing the elephants." she said dryly before closing her eyes and pressing her head into the hollow of his throat so his chin was resting on the top of her head and she was enveloped in his arms. His arms involuntarily wrapped around her pulling her close.

He groaned silently. This girl was going to be the death of him. "We still have to talk about earlier, Elena." he growled softly.

"Tomorrow." she murmured sleepily, her mouth moving against his throat in a whisper of a kiss. He sighed and pulled her closer, nuzzling his face into her hair and inhaling the scent of coconut and strawberries and finally drifting into sleep.

* * *

_A/N: Although a lot happens in this chapter for Vamp Elena for her and Damon it's a filler. Things are going to get complicated with them (maybe, if I come up with the how... maybe i'll just leave them to be happy and have them ride off into the sunset...)_

_You guys like? I'd really appreciate reviews on this chapter because I feel like I really screwed it up_


	5. Pretty Eyes and Infuriating Smiles

"_What are you doing?" he scoffed as she pulled his dark t-shirt over his head. _

"_Addressing the elephants." she said dryly before closing her eyes and pressing her head into the hollow of his throat. His arms involuntarily wrapped around her pulling her close._

_He groaned silently. This girl was going to be the death of him. "We still have to talk about earlier, Elena." he growled softly._

"_Tomorrow." she murmured sleepily, her mouth moving against his throat in a whisper of a kiss. He sighed and pulled her closer, nuzzling his face into her hair and inhaling the scent of coconut and strawberries and finally drifting into sleep._

* * *

He woke hours later feeling as though he has slept for days. He frowned as he glanced at the clock – they had only slept for a few hours yet he'd gotten the best rest he'd had in months.

He smiled softly to himself as Elena buried her face deeper into his chest and pulled her tighter. They hadn't slept for long enough, another hour or two wouldn't make a difference.

He sank back against the pillows aware of nothing more than himself and the sleeping vampire in his arms.

* * *

She rolled over in her sleep, uneasy memories crashing down on her.

"_Cute pjs." he had said lightly. _

She frowned. She didn't remember that.

"_Katherine?" His voice was confused. _

When _was_ this? Had she dreamed it all?

"_Probably the most selfish thing I've ever said in my entire life."_

That son of a bitch compelled her!

"_You just really remind me of someone. I'm Damon." he said in his velvet voice._

Her heart was pounding. _Twice. _He'd compelled her _twice_.

"_That's not true. You want what everybody wants." he said in an all knowing tone._

"_I love you, Elena." he said softly._

"_You want a love that consumes you. You want passion. Adventure. And even a little bit of danger."_

"_And it's because I love you, that I can't be selfish with you." he said in a broken whisper._

"_I want you to get everything you're looking for." he said, his tone commanding. _

"_I don't deserve you, but my brother does." he said with such anguish it made her heart hurt. _

"_But right now I want you to forget that this happened." he said indifferently._

"_God, I wish you didn't have to forget this, but you do." A single tear spilled over and he was gone._

She sat bolt upright, breathing heavily. Damon sat up groggily. "What's wrong?" he mumbled sleepily.

She glared at him. "You ass!" she yelled while she hit him. Hard.

Damon's eyes widened realising what she now remembered. "Hey, hey. I'm my defence, the first time I was all evil!" he backed away form a very angry, very violent Elena.

"Not the point, Damon!" she roared at him, her eyes flashing in rage.

She was so fiery when she was angry."Damon!" she yelled at him.

"What do you want me to say, Elena?" he said tiredly. There was nothing he could do to change anything, and he still wouldn't if he could. If she had had those memories, everything would be even more complicated than it already was and he sure as hell couldn't deal with that.

"I don't know! Why did you take them? They were mine!" She yelled, her voice on the verge of cracking.

"Elena! Think _back_, can you honestly not see that it completely _killed_ me to make you forget that?" his voice was pained. It _had _killed him. Knowing that she had those memories, they were just locked deep inside of her. Every time she had said it was because she had met Stefan first, _stab, _like a stake straight through his heart.

She lashed out at him, yelling and screaming, cursing and thrashing about. Eventually, he'd had enough. He stood up wearily and waiting until she threw her next punch. He blocked her hand easily and grabbed both her wrists with his hands.

"Look at me, Elena." She did, glaring. He winced, she was so angry. She was so _alive._

"You couldn't know that. Not yet." she looked away, her eyes still burning.

"You shouldn't have told me then." she said matter of factly, the edge in her voice hiding the pain.

"I know." he said softly. "But I had to Elena. I had to tell you. But you weren't ready to hear it, not then." he paused, wondering how far he was willing to go. "You're still not ready to hear it!"

She tugged her wrists roughly from his grasp and he let her go without a fight. Again, he'd messed everything up. "And the first time?" she said accusingly after a while.

He sighed in defeat. "No excuse for that one. I didn't want anyone to know I was in town, so I compelled you." he shrugged slightly. "I wish I hadn't. I've regretted ever since."

Elena looked at him strangely, half angry half confused mixed in with something else he couldn't quite place.

"That long." she breathed in wonder.

"Yes." he said shortly, wondering where she was going with this.

"You shouldn't have done it." the steel was back in her voice and it cut through him like a knife through butter.

He nodded, waiting for the next screaming match.

Suddenly, he snorted with laughter causing her to look at him like he'd lost his mind. He rose and eyebrow, a smile on his face. He knew he could win her over, she loved it when he smiled. It was so rare for it to be genuine but around her it was automatic.

"Come on, 'Lena. Think about this situation. I'm the one trying to be all reasonable and explain things and you-" he pointed an accusatory finger at her. "You're lashing out. You always lash out when things get hard Elena!" he said in a mock hurt voice.

She managed to keep a straight face for three whole seconds.

Her warm laughter filtered into the room and lit her up from the inside out. He figured she was done with the screaming and took a step towards her.

"How do you do that?" she asked in wonder.

"Do what?" he smirked cockily. "I can do lots of things." he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"That!" she exclaimed with a smile on her face. "You just, light everything up."

He burst out laughing with her small giggles joining in eventually. "I light everything up?" he asked sceptically trying to hold the laughter in.

She chucked a pillow at him. "You know what I mean!" she said, "You can make everything, no matter how serious, into some massive joke." she smiled sweetly. "even though it's annoying as hell a lot of the time."

He crashed out on to the sofa, smiling with pleasant surprise when Elena joined him instead of leaving to go shower. Or eat. Or something.

"You ready to talk about last night yet?" he asked gently.

"No."

He rolled his eyes. "Tough." he said shortly, she had to talk about it. It didn't _help _if you kept it all bottled up inside.

"If I talk about it then-" her voice shook slightly "Then I have to think about everything. All the pain I caused him, the pain his family will be going through. And I can't!" Salty tears were gathering in her eyes and were on the verge of spilling over.

He took her in his arms and held her tightly, silently cursing her for making him feel like this.

"I killed him, Damon." she spoke into the silence, as if testing the words.

"You did." he agreed gently as her back pressed against his chest, "But that's not what's bothering you, is it?" he noted quietly.

She looked at him with wide eyes, and he shrugged and kissed her hair. "I felt the same when I killed at first."

"You did?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, Elena. I did." he replied rather indignantly. She smiled slightly, the corners of her mouth just twitching upwards.

"I killed him, Damon. I killed him and I'm fine with it. I'm fine with the fact that I killed someone, someone with a mind and thought and feelings. He probably had a family and a best friend he's known since forever. _And I don't care." _she whispered, deathly quiet into the afternoon air.

He turned her around slowly so he could cup her face between his hands. "Don't you see, Elena?" he asked endearingly. She shook her head and he let out a groan of frustration.

"It's hardwired in to you, Elena. We are made to be the best possible hunters for humans. We are faster, stronger. We have heightened emotions and senses. Everything is amplified."

Her expression remained nonplussed. He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "This-" he gestured at her. "Is who you are. You are Elena Gilbert. You are nineteen years old. You're stubborn as hell yet the worst at decision making. You have the prettiest eyes I've ever seen and your smile is as infuriating as it is beautiful. You fell in love with a vampire and lived through more than anyone ought to at your age. And-" he paused for just a second. "You are a vampire."

"Those four words don't change anything about you. If anything they make you better. You love fiercer, fall harder, hate with more passion, fight with more anger. Everything is bigger, and brighter. It's who you are. It's who we both are."

She stared at him as if he'd just announced he was going to try the Stefan diet. "What?" he asked curiously as she kept staring at him. He could practically hear the little wheels turning in her head. _Click. Click. Click. _

He didn't get a chance to react before his lips were being attacked by crushed her lips onto his and let lose whatever passion she had been holding back since she had turned. He kissed her back, fiercely and without thought for the consequences. Her hands roamed over his chest and her nails raked over his back teasing a moan out of him.

He slipped his hands up her shirt to feel the warm skin of her back and pressed her closer to him never breaking contact with her lips.

He broke away and kissed a trail down her collar bone and across her neck.

"You're so amazing." she breathed breathlessly, regardless of the fact that she didn't need to breath.

He claimed her mouth again, some of the heat lost as they slowed down, their mouths moving together in a way neither of them had ever imagined. He kissed her so softly, hardly daring to believe this was happening.

"So amazing." she whispered against his lips. He threaded his fingers through her hair and finally broke away from her, leaving her forehead rested against his.


	6. It's Tearing Us Apart

_"You're so amazing." she breathed breathlessly, regardless of the fact that she didn't need to breath._

_He claimed her mouth again, some of the heat lost as they slowed down, their mouths moving together in a way neither of them had ever imagined. He kissed her so softly, hardly daring to believe this was happening._

_"So amazing." she whispered against his lips. He threaded his fingers through her hair and finally broke away from her, leaving her forehead rested against his._

* * *

"I-" she broke of and ran her fingers through her hair restlessly, "I-uh, need to call Caroline." she said hurriedly before darting out of the bedroom, leaving him staring after her wondering if anything had even changed.

He groaned and sat up, running his fingers through his dark hair. She was scared and she was running. She was scared of him. Not because he would hurt her but because of his feelings and the way she felt about him.

She was scared.

He swung his legs out the bed and rubbed his face with one hand. That one girl, vampire, had managed to turn his world around and screw him over so many times. She cared about him, he knew she did, but she was scared as hell. Why was she so scared of him? What was different? What was so different about the way he made her feel than the way Stefan had? Was it more? Less? He groaned again, exasperated, as he heard her voice coming from downstairs.

"Care? Yeah, can you come over to the Boarding House?" She laughed softly at something the blonde had said. "I know, I'm sorry!" the care free tone was gone. "Care, look. I really need you right now." She paused, silent for a few moments. "I love you too, see you soon." then he heard the definite click as she hung up.

Her words pained him, even after everything, after she seemed to be finally getting a grip on this whole new set of rules she was still hurting.

A sudden intake of breath alerted him to the fact that she couldn't be downstairs alone right now. No matter how confused she was about him, she needed him. She couldn't turn Ripper like Stefan, she wouldn't be able to handle that, no matter how she felt about the one death she'd already caused.

She wearily made his way downstairs, the scene unfolding before him much different than he'd originally pictured.

Stefan was sitting at the breakfast island, his face a mask of pain hidden by overwhelming suspicion and anger while Elena was leaning against the door, hidden by the shadows with her arms crossed defiantly over her chest as they argued in hushed tones.

"Stop assuming, Stefan!" she hissed angrily. "I didn't _sleep _with your brother." she scowled.

"You're standing in the kitchen wearing his shirt Elena!" he raged quietly. Obviously they were trying not to let him hear.

"We didn't _sleep _together, Stefan. I slept in his bed. As in sleeping. Because I was tired." she insisted. There she goes, over explaining. Way to make yourself look guilty, Elena.

"Tell me, Elena. Tell me you don't feel something for him." he edged closer to her, his face almost touching hers.

She looked away, allowing him to catch sight of her face and the indecision and tears that were clearly etched there.

"I can't." she whispered brokenly, unable to look Stefan in the eye.

Stefan backed away, his face resigned. "Well there you have it." he said quietly, his eyes empty. "Just don't keep going with this, Elena. For all our sakes, just choose." he backed away from her and headed towards the back door.

"It's tearing us all apart. You as well." he said before leaving the kitchen quietly.

Elena froze, her face a mask of shock at what had just occurred. She slowly sat down on one of the stools that was cast in darkness and buried her face in her hands. All he wanted was to go to her, to wrap his arms around her and hold her tightly until all her face faded away.

He picked up the sound of a car pulling into the driveway and reluctantly made his way outside to greet an over exuberant blonde vampire.

"Damon!" she yelled loudly. In a flash, he was in front of her, frantically signalling for her to be quiet. "What?" she whispered in a hushed tone.

"She's-" he was shocked by how broken his own voice sounded. "She's in the kitchen."

Worry was clear in Caroline's eyes as she pushed past Damon and zoomed into the house, desperate to comfort her best friend.

* * *

She sat huddled in the kitchen, hating the fact that she was still crouched in the shadows. Footsteps were echoing quietly through the house and from the distinctive click of heels she knew it was Caroline. She turned slowly, waiting for her friend to appear.

"Elena!" she said excitedly when she walked into the kitchen, engulfing her in a tight hug, "What are you wearing? And why do you smell like Damon?" she wrinkled her nose disgusted. Her eyes widened considerably. "Did you-"

"No!" she cut her off quickly. Of course she knew how bad it looked that she was sitting in Damon's shirt but she really wished everyone thought a bit more of her than that.

"Do you honestly think I would do that, Care?" she shook her head sadly. "Does everyone think that?"

Caroline wrapped her arms around her and hugged her again. "Elena, the only people who can't see how in love you both are are you and Damon."

She started to shake her head, but stopped swiftly at the look of Caroline's face. "Damon knows he loves you, Elena. He''s known for a long time but he is completely in the dark about how you feel about him."

"You're not supposed to be the logical one." she muttered weakly, earning a slight smile.

"Well I am right now." she said proudly. "Elena, you keep going back to Stefan because you know how you feel about him. You know you love him, or you know you did at one point but with Damon it's all a grey area, you have no idea how you feel and you are scared, right?" she asked, rather determinedly.

"Yes." she whispered quietly.

Caroline smiled triumphantly. "So don't be scared. It's really that simple, Elena. I promise you."

She didn't say anything. She knew how simple it really was. Take away all her fear and it stared her straight in the face. She knew. She knew what her heart wanted.

"When did you get so wise, Care?" she asked softly.

Caroline smiled, her eyes glittering sweetly. "When you know you're going to live forever you don't have to worry about life being too short. You can do what you want but you always know that if you make the wrong choice it will stay with you."

Elena stared at her friend, her eyes wide. It was true, everything everyone was saying as true. She was scared about how hard she had fallen. She smiled ruefully. _'You love fiercer, fall harder'_ was what he had said but really? Really that was just him, not every vampire could be like that. He loved so fiercely is consumed her, and it made her scared.

She took a deep breath, wincing as the pain in her throat intensified.. Oh what the hell. She flashed a smile at Caroline, who rose an eyebrow at her.

"What do you want?" she asked suspiciously.

"Get me a- uh- drink?" she asked awkwardly. She raised her hands to show Caroline. "No ring." she said by way of explanation, glancing at the refrigerator which was typically, sitting in the brightest part of the kitchen. She rolled her eyes and grabbed a blood bag, pouring it into a glass and holding it away from her teasingly.

She could feel the veins appearing around her eyes and the fangs slicing through her gum. Everything within her was screaming at her to knock Caroline aside and down the glass.

"Elena." she said seriously, "Don't gulp it down. Control it. Focus." she hesitantly placed the glass in front of her. Her hands twitched as she fought to keep them by her side. "Wait a few moments." Caroline instructed sternly.

The seconds ticked by as the delicious smell reached her, everything screamed at her – yelling at her to drink it.

Caroline smirked. "You're better at this that I was. Right. Drink it normally, don't down it like a shot or anything."

She reached out, watching in fascination as the think liquid sloshed around. She raised it to her lips, every inch of her fighting her desire.

The second it touched her lips she almost lost control, but deep within her mind she chanted to herself: _Keep control. Keep control. Keep control. _

"You really are better at that that me." Caroline scowled. "I was a psycho when I drank at first."

She rose an eyebrow. "Not anymore you're not, right?"

She shrugged "It does get easier, but I've not been a vampire that long."

She took a deep breath, "I should go- uh- talk to people." she said haltingly.

Caroline gave her a knowing look. "You really should." she said seriously. When Caroline spoke seriously you had to listen to her, it was so unexpected.

"Bye Care." she hugged her friend tightly, glad she knew at least one vampire who wasn't going to the her by the end of the day.

* * *

_Ugh, okay. I had a rally hard time writing how Elena would react to the blood - i don't want her to be super in control but I don't want her to be some crazy ripper psycho. Did I do it justice? _


	7. Ripping Your Throat Out And Staking You

She turned around and surveyed the kitchen in dismay. Trust her to be in the only shadowed spot surrounded completely by sunlight.

"No." she moaned irritably. She had no choice but to walk across the patches of light and get burned by a million tiny daggers slicing through her skin.

She sighed and gritted her teeth, vamp speeding across the sunlit patches.

"Fuck." she moaned as her skin burned, hissing in pain as they began to heal.

Damon was at her side in seconds, concern covering his face. "Elena?" he said questioningly.

She sighed and pointed to the kitchen. "See the little dark patch right there? Surrounded by light? That's where I happened to be standing several painfully seconds ago."

Damon kept his composure for only a few seconds before a smile cracked his face.

"Don't laugh!" she said indignantly, her own smile appearing.

"Come on, Elena!" he chuckled. "You managed to trap yourself!" he spluttered, his eyes alight with humour.

She smacked him indignantly. "Well Bonnie hasn't been around to get me a ring!" she said laughing, making a mental note to find Bonnie and convince her she was still Elena and not evil or anything.

Damon sobered instantly, looking almost shy. "I-" he stopped looking awkward. "I actually got you a ring." he shifted his weight form one foot to the other, looking adorable. "If you wanted."

She looked up, her mouth open slightly. "You did? When?"

He smirked. "After I fed you my blood before you went running off to Klaus to let yourself die."

She glared at him, "I never really got a chance to hate you for that."

"Because I was dying." he said softly.

"I know. I couldn't hate you after that. You had tried to save me and I was ready to hate you for the rest of eternity, or at least let you grovel for several years but then Tyler bit you-" she broke off and looked at the floor.

The memories and feelings came rushing back. If she'd lost him that night, if Katherine hadn't made it in time, she would have lost herself too.

"If you'd died-" she started shakily.

"But I didn't." he cut her off swiftly, moving closer to her.

She looked at him. "If, Damon. _If." _she insisted.

"_Elena_." he said incredulously.

"Don't Damon. You brought this up! It's your fault! It just brought up those memories from that night." she said softly, her eyes wild. She had held him in her arms as he was dying from the bite of an ally.

"It's in the past, Elena." he said soothingly, his face tight.

"It's not the point, Damon. I was ready to hate you forever, if I hadn't found out would you even have told me? Or would you have lain in that bed alone?" she whispered into the silent house.

"Elena. I, being the eternal optimist-" She cut him off with a snort of disbelief. He looked at her, melting her with his eyes. "I had to believe you would forgive me in time. I couldn't stand the idea of you hating me forever." he said quietly.

She looked down at the floor, memories cascading around her. "I'm sorry."

He scoffed and cupped her face in his hands. "Don't be sorry. Never be sorry for me."

She looked at him, fighting everything in her not to press her lips against his and lose herself in him. She pressed her palm against his hand, pressing it closer to his cheek.

"I'm glad he bit me." he said softly into the quiet air, "because if he hadn't I wouldn't be siting here with you, like this, fighting ever urge I have to not kiss you right now."

She met his eyes for a second before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close. He hesitantly wound his arms around her slim frame and hugged her back, ever so softly.

"Even if he hadn't bitten you, Stefan would have left." she said.

Damon's head shot up, shock clouding his eyes.

"Klaus wanted him, Klaus would have gotten him. And we would still be here, and you would still be fighting."

"And I wouldn't have the guilt." he whispered regretfully. "Not the same guilt anyway."

"I know." was all she said in reply. In those two words she tried to convert everything she was feeling. Her guilt, her desires, her thoughts, her feelings, her emotions. Every ounce of love she could carry inside of her.

She pulled back regretfully, putting distance between them, both of them missing the contact.

"I need to do something." she said, her voice steady.

He nodded once before flashing away, returning before her mind could even wander much further than staring after him.

He smirked at her and held out a black box to her, reminding her of her birthday party all those months ago.

"Happy forever, Elena." he said, winking cheekily at her, flipping open the box to reveal her ring.

It wasn't gaudy or overdone, it was for lack of a better word, beautiful, although that couldn't even begin to describe it.

It was a white gold band intertwined with a few others to make an intricate pattern. Across the design were four royal blue stones with the largest, the size of pea, one one side descending to the smallest, which was only tiny. Lapis Lazuli stones.

She breathed out in awe as she took in the glittering piece of jewellery. She smiled gently and looked imploringly at him.

"Would you?" she asked sweetly.

He smirked at her and lifted the ring out of it's box and slid it onto the first finger of her left hand.

"I'll bump it along a couple fingers one day." he said jokingly, although she could see the seriousness in his eyes along with a glimmer of longing hidden just under a deep, heart-wrenching sadness.

She laughed musically and stepped away from him. "It's beautiful. Thank you." she said as she stepped out of the door into the morning sun.

* * *

She gritted her teeth and knocked on the familiar door of her childhood home.

Her breath caught in her throat as her brother answered the door. He was a mess. His eyes were gaunt and empty, his whole face displaying to the world that he had lost everyone.

"What do you want, Katherine?" he said in a flat voice.

She smiled weakly. "To seen my baby brother smile again."

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened so much he looked abnormal. Really abnormal.

"What-" he spluttered in shock. "How?"

She chuckled, still sore from the hurt displayed on her brother's face. "When you found me collapsed on the floor, it wasn't just a concussion. I would have died if Meredith hadn't fed me vampire blood." she summarised quickly, trying to ignore the hot wet blood pumping through his veins.

She took a deep, calming breath. This wasn't some door-to-door salesman – this was her brother. She closed her eyes, focussing on her own breathing until the urges passed.

"You're a vampire." he said in awe, his face pale.

She nodded a confirmation, smiling weakly.

Jeremy stared at her silently for a while when suddenly, out of nowhere he broke into loud laughter.

"What's so funny?" she asked with a smile on her face. It was nice to see her brother laugh again.

"Sorry, Ric was behind you pretending to rip your throat out and stake you." he said snickering.

"You can see him?" she asked incredulously, an unimaginable wave of happiness washing over her. He was gone, but he was still here. Jeremy was so lucky to be blessed enough to see those on the other side.

"Yeah." he said grinning. "So if I start cracking jokes about killer Ric, it's 'cause I've had him around cracking the jokes to start with."

"I miss you." she whispered into the air.

"He misses you too" Jeremy smiled sadly, "and he wants you to tell Damon that his good bourbon is hidden in the cheap bottles in his loft."

Elena laughed brightly. "You're sneaky Ric! I'll tell him."

Jeremy smiled. "Can I invite you in?" he asked hesitantly. "Are you gonna go all crazy and rip my throat out?" he asked, only semi-joking.

She breathed out as she felt the vampire instincts build up inside her. "Don't. Not yet."

Jeremy nodded, looking sad. "I love you, 'Lena." he whispered.

"Love you too, baby bro." she smiled back, her heart aching for him. "Bye, Jer." she said walking down the porch steps softly adding, "Bye Ric."

* * *

She pulled up outside her second stop, one which would be considerably more painful if Bonnie was in a vicious mood.

Again, she gritted her teeth and knocked on the door.

Bonnie swung the door open, her eyes full of anger.

"Leave Katherine." she ordered, closing her eyes as a thousand tiny needles attacked her mind, sending pain right through her as she crumpled to the floor clutching her head.

She let out a cry of pain as she felt firsthand the pain Bonnie had inflicted on so many people.

"Bonnie!" she managed to gasp out. "It's Elena!" she screamed as another wave of agony rolled over her.

The attack ceased for a moment, giving her only a few seconds of relief before it was back, tripled in strength.

"Bonnie!" she screamed. "Please!"

Bonnie stopped and stared at her, her eyes wary.

Elena lay on the floor, gasping for breath as she tried to recover. She was barely recovered for a minute before the mind-numbing pain was back, attacking every inch of her consciousness.

She screamed in pain, writhing on the floor as she endured long seconds of torture.

"Prove it." she said in a voice like ice, her eyes closed ready to resume the mental attack.

She couldn't focused through the pain, her mind refused to picture a single moment only she would have witnessed. She cried out as her mind was invaded over and over again.

"Feathers!" she suddenly yelled out. "You showed me your magic with feathers." she whimpered softly.

The attack stopped, leaving her weak and drained on the porch, gasping for air that she didn't need.

"God, Elena. You died." she whispered.

"Vampire blood." she said, barely audible to Bonnie's ears.

Bonnie placed a shaking hand over her mouth and shrunk back against the door frame. "I'm so sorry. I gave you almost five times as much as I gave Damon" she said softly, her voice shaking. "because Katherine is older. God, Elena I'm so sorry. That could have killed you." she gasped.

Elena lay on the porch, refusing to say another word as she attempted to recover. Damon had been over one hundred and fifty years old, and had had five times less than that forced into his mind. She was younger, barely a week as a vampire. It was logical. Use more pain on older vampires. Witches have an awesome sense of humour. Giving people the power to create aneurysms. How _fun_.

She sat up, feelings unnaturally weak. "It's fine." she whispered hoarsely.

"I'll take you back-" Bonnie began.

"Don't." she managed to force out. "I could hurt you." She forced herself to stand up shaking. "Come over to the Boarding house later?" she asked weakly.

Bonnie nodded, her face still shocked with her eyes full of tears. "I will."

She forced herself to walk towards the car and start the engine, wanting nothing more than to drain a person, or several dry.


	8. In Love With Him Out of Love With You

She pulled up at the Boarding House some minutes later and sat in the driver's seat for a while. She had meant to find Stefan and go visit Matt but right now, she barely had the energy to walk inside.

"What's up?" a soft voice said from next to her ear.

"Witchy migraines." she mumbled vaguely, not wanting to talk right now.

Damon cursed and scooped her up into his arms and carried her inside and laid her on the sofa. "Those things are _hell." _he said viciously. "And I'm older and stronger than you."

Elena was feeling better so she managed to sit up and lean her head in her hands. "Apparently, she used five times more pain on me than you. She thought I was Katherine." she explained quietly, unable to talk louder.

"Five times _more_?" he said incredulously. "I'm going to kill her when I see her." he said perfectly casually.

"You'd say that if it _had_ been Katherine and she'd done nothing." she pointed out, smirking very slightly.

Damon chuckled. "Not the point. Has your brain recovered from it's many, many, many aneurysms yet?" he asked dryly.

Elena smiled and rubbed her temples. "Could you get me something to drink?" she asked tiredly.

He nodded and fetched a blood bag from the fridge, emptying it into a glass like Caroline had done.

He walked into the room, holding it away from her slightly.

"You gonna give me the whole 'breath, focus, control' talk too?" she asked knowingly.

He rose an eyebrow. "Caroline stole my job, huh." he said smiling as he handed her the glass.

"She beat you to it." she said as she felt the vein erupt under her eyes and her fangs sliced through her guns. She raised the glass to her lips and emptied the cold liquid down her throat. She understood why people hunted, it tasted better warm.

"Better her than Stefan." he muttered darkly. "One ripper is enough."

"So you turn _into_ a ripper?" she asked confused.

She'd assumed it was something you had to live with, something you were born with. You either had blue eyes or you didn't. You were right handed or left handed. You were a ripper or you weren't.

"What do you mean?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows together.

"Well, you say it like it's something that you can control. Like, it's not something he can't help."

He sighed and leant back against the sofa. "All vampires have the capability to be Rippers but it's not the lust that makes them a Ripper it's the lack of control they have because they fought against their natural instinct." he began explaining.

"After a while Stefan would have turned his emotions back on and the guilt would have crushed him to the point were he resisted the pull of blood and began feeding on animals. Actually, that isn't even what causes it either. It's the timing really. Stefan gave up on the human stuff before he learnt real control so now, when he falls off the wagon, it gets worse each time because of years worth of bloodlust building up."

Damon scowled. "Even if he had learnt real control he would still be more bloodthirsty than a regular. Heightened emotions are a bitch, they can reveal aspects of your character you never knew existed."

Elena stared at him. "Promise me something." she whispered quietly.

"Anything." he said.

"Don't let me become like that. Even if you have to force me to drink from blood bags, do it. I can't be a ripper. I can deal with the odd body, but whole towns? Hundred upon hundred of dead bodies drained dry?" she whispered. "Please don't."

Damon smiled ruefully. "I don't need to promise you that. I already promised myself."

She smiled. "You always keep your promises right?" she asked.

He smiled so gently at her. "Only to you."

She stood up, feeling much better than she had twenty minute or so ago, and slung her bag over her shoulder.

"I actually still have one more thing to do." she muttered apologetically.

His eyes darkened. "You do?"

"Don't worry, I'll stay away from Bonnie." she said jokingly.

He chuckled lightly but it didn't quite reach his eyes. She couldn't bare to see him hurting anymore so she left quickly, masking her own pain behind the shadow of her hair.

* * *

She slid back into her car, driving into down and pulling to a stop in a side road near the Grill. She reluctantly pulled her phone out of her bag and opened the contacts, stopping at a name she hadn't called in a long time.

The dialling tone echoed in her ear. Her breath caught in her throat as his familiar voice rang through the line.

"_Elena? Hey."_

"Hey." she echoed. "Are you busy?" she said shyly.

"_No. I'm just at the Grill seeing who is around." _he said, his voice reminding her of the times when she didn't know he was a vampire and all she had to worry about was Jeremy going off the rails.

She cleared her throat awkwardly, the tension getting to her. "Can you meet me outside?"

She could almost imagine the look on his face at her words. _"Why?"_ he asked suspiciously.

"I don't want to have this conversation on the phone, Stefan." she said firmly, scared to the bone at how this conversation might turn out.

"_Oh-"_ he paused awkwardly. _"Okay."_ was all he said as she heard to distinctive click as he hung up.

She sat in her car for a few moments, her eyes locked on the entrance to the grill. As Stefan stepped out glancing around curiously, he once again reminded her of a simple time; a time when she was human, and she didn't know werewolves or hybrids existed. A time when all she had to worry about was Katherine and Damon's psychotic personality. He was a reminder of her life as a human – a life she couldn't keep holding onto.

She slid out of the car and met him halfway. She could see in his face he already knew what was coming.

"Hi." she said quietly, meeting his eyes steadily.

"Hi." he said, looking away awkwardly. "I-uh" he paused. "How are you coping?"

She smiled lightly. "I'm okay. You know the drill. Heightened emotions, uncontrollable bloodlust. Fiercer love, more painful grief."

He nodded, his eyes sad. "I'm sorry I haven't been around-" he began apologising.

She shook her head, cutting him short. "I can't be like you Stefan. I can't feed on animals and snap every few years and rip my victims apart."

Pain flashed through his eyes. "That's who I am, Elena."

"I know." she said through gritted teeth. "It doesn't mean I have to like it."

"And what about the rest of me?" he asked hopefully.

This time it was her to look away. "It controls you, Stefan. That is the real you, and I don't know you anymore to answer that question."

He took a step closer. "Then get to know me" he pleaded "it's still me."

"I can't, Stefan. After everything we went through, after everything you put me through, I can't just forget it all."

He looked down, sadness clouding his face. "So where do we stand?" he asked quietly, refusing to meet her gaze.

"We both know where we stand." she said quietly. "We ended a long time ago, Stefan, it's just neither of us realised at the time."

"I know." he said brokenly. "I stood and watched you slip away from me."

She didn't know how to answer, she just stood and looked at him. He took advantage of her silence and continues in the same, sad tone.

"I don't know when it was, Elena, but I saw it happen before my own eyes. Everyday you fell a little bit more for him."

"He snuck up on me." she said, ruefully repeating her words she had said to Matt.

"Whether you love me, or you love him doesn't matter-" he began, stopping when a light snort escaped her lips.

He smirked and chuckled forcefully. "I know" he said smiling slightly, "but answer me something, if I hadn't left, would we be together?"

She looked down. "I can't tell you what might have happened. I can only tell you what has happened and what I feel now. If you hadn't left – if we hadn't be forced together to keep us from falling apart I might not be having this conversation with you right now but I would still be feeling the same way. I can't say I love him, not to you, not to his brother but there was a time I was so deeply in love with you it made my heart hurt that I couldn't realise what I felt for him." she said confidently, the words pouring out.

"I loved you, I thought love was what we had. I thought it was pure and sweet and innocent but it's not. It's crazy and wild, it's all consuming and tears you apart from the inside out. It isn't easy and it isn't sweet. You have to fight for it, and I know what I want to fight for now."

Stefan nodded once, his green eyes hard and emotionless. "When was it?" he whispered so quietly she had to strain to hear him. "When did I lose you completely?"

"There's no time frame for this kind of thing. I don't know when I fell in love with him and out of love with you – I don't know when I loved you both and when I loved only one."

"But when did you know?" he whispered. He seemed to want the truth, no matter how much pain it caused him.

"I was fighting feelings for him all summer" she began shakily, scared of what might come out of her mouth. "but I was human, I thought I still loved you." she breathed out a deep breath.

"And then I opened my eyes. I told you I didn't want to be a vampire because you are a lover for a human. You hide the Ripper and become one of the most humane vampires I ever encountered but when I opened my eyes..." she trailed off, unable to put her emotions into words.

"He loves you more than life itself, Elena." he said gently. "I saw him with Katherine and I thought that was when my brother was truly in love but with you it's so much stronger. Not because he is a vampire. Damon spent over a hundred years searching for Katherine but for you he would search forever, even if it took him to his death. He will fight for you and he will love you with his whole being." he said, unbearable sadness radiating from him.

"He is better for you that I could ever be. You know him better that he knows himself."

She blinked back tears at his words. She was hurting him beyond measure but here he was, being honest and open and the Stefan she had known.

"I still love you, Stefan." she whispered. "Just not the way you want me to. You can be my brother, my friend."

"You make him happy, Elena." he said, a small spark in his eyes. "And he makes you whole."

"Thank you." she whispered.

"Your welcome." he said so quietly he was almost mouthing the words


	9. Right Here, Right Now

_"You make him happy, Elena." he said, a small spark in his eyes. "And he makes you whole."_

_"Thank you." she whispered._

_"Your welcome." he said so quietly she was didn't hear him speak or the raw honesty in his voice._

* * *

After her confrontation with Stefan she sat in her car for a long time. Everything had changed. She was free, she had made her choice and now she just had to let him know.

A strange feeling built up inside her, anticipation and fear mixed in with a pure undisguised happiness and a hint of lust.

She couldn't keep the smile off of her face as she drove as fast as possible to the Boarding House and speeding inside in seconds, too wound up to walk at a human pace.

She couldn't hear him anywhere so she headed upstairs, smirking in realisation as she heard the creak of the shower turning off and the opening of a drawer as he pulled on clothes.

She waited as silently as possible so he wouldn't hear before hearing him go over to the window and open it slowly. She walked through the door with as much confidence as she could muster, smiling at the confused look on his face.

She dropped her bag onto the small dresser by the wall without breaking her stride and refused to be distracted by his perfectly toned chest which was still glistening with water droplets.

She locked gazes with him, smiling as the confusion radiated out from him.

In seconds she was in front of him. She didn't even hesitate for a second before threading her fingers through his hair and bringing his lips to meet hers.

His response was instantaneous as the kiss deepened into something more than just lust. It was everything he had told her she wanted that night those years ago.

She pulled away from his lips gently, only for a few moments before she used her hold on his hair to pull his lips to hers, her vampire strength holding him there.

There was nothing holding him back now.

He let his hands fall into place – one on her lower back and the other holding her lips against his.

He moaned as her teeth grazed his lips, letting lose his own vampire instincts. He spun her around and backed her into the wall.

She moved her mouth to her jaw, tracing the line to his ear and nibbling it lightly, teasing another moan from his lips as she wrapped her legs securely around her waist as he lifted her up, crushing her between his body and the wall.

He yanked her head back towards his and gazed at her, both their eyes darkened with passion. He crashed his lips back to hers, battling with her tongue for dominance.

This time it was him who broke away from her lips to place open mouthed kissed down her neck, and kissing lightly along her collar bone.

She moaned lightly and used one hand to pull his lips back to meet hers while the other slipped through their entwined arms to feel the hard muscles of his back.

She smiled against his lips, knowing she hadn't even aid what she had intended to say.

She broke away from his lips and let her head fall back against the wall.

He smiled softly, his eyes alight and his lips upturned, making him look truly alive. He leant his forehead against hers as she dropped her legs from around his waist so she stood smaller than him, both of them simply gazing at the other, neither willing to speak incase the spell that had been created was shattered.

As it turned out neither was needed to speak first because Elena's phone erupting into life from her back shattered it for them.

Both of them moaned in irritation as her ringtone repeated itself.

"Don't answer it." Damon pleased, his eyes tortured.

She smirked and pulled his lips back to meet hers, their kiss so much softer than the previous one, letting all their love seep into it. It wasn't a lip biting, neck sucking kiss – it was a kiss between two people who had waited so long finally forgetting everyone else for just a few minutes.

She broke away and gazed into his eyes knowing what she must look like: bright eyes and swollen lips.

She moved her lips to his ear pressing a small kiss to his ear lobe. "I love you." she whispered quietly, knowing he would hear her as if she had shouted.

He tensed slightly, unable to respond because her phone began dancing to her ringtone for the second time.

He moaned and cursed. "I'm going to kill someone." he promised himself as he broke away and sat down on the bed, running his fingers through his hair in a frustrated manner.

Elena scowled at her bag and stalked over to it, digging around for a few moments to find her phone. She glared at the display before answering it and snapping at the phone.

"What?" she snapped irritably.

"Woh, 'Lena. They were right." Jeremy said shocked.

"Who was right?" she said curiously, despite herself.

"Stefan, Caroline and Ric said not to call you or Damon 'till later because you would be pissed" he said casually.

Elena glared at the phone, unable to think of a response before Damon snatched the phone from her.

"Yes mini Gilbert, I am exceptionally pissed." he growled.

Her vampire hearing could pick up Jeremy spluttering from the other end of the line as he realised what he could have interrupted.

Elena leant back and closed her eyes, tuning out her younger brother droning on in the background, her mind wandering over the events of the last ten minutes.

"Mmhm, you too. Buh bye now." Damon said in a fake cheery voice before hanging up the phone and rolling on top of her and kissed her shoulder softly.

"We can't have this conversation right now." he said in an agonized voice. "Jeremy said we need to go to Caroline's house."

She snapped back into her right mind. "What's wrong with Caroline?" she asked anxiously.

Damon groaned. "_I_ don't know. He wouldn't tell me" he smirked evilly "he seemed to want off the phone as soon as possible."

"Why can't we have this conversation now?" she asked confused and she threaded her fingers through his hair as he leant his cheek against her chest.

Damon rolled his eyes and looked up at her in his usual manner. "Because, do you really wanna have this conversation on a time scale? Baby bro said as soon as possible."

Elena sat up causing Damon to roll of of her and leant back on her hands, looking at him.

"Since when do you care about what my brother wants?" she challenged wickedly, knowing that would get to him.

He sat up to and glared at her. "Since I care about what you want."

She leant back and stretched her hands out above her head, smiling innocently at him. "And I don't mind being slightly late to whatever they need us for."

Damon laughed and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her so she was straddling his stomach.

She smiled and leant her head on his chest, pressing a light kiss to his muscles.

"Why aren't you running?" he asked quietly. She could hear the tone of his voice. He was scared of her answer, scared she _would_ run.

She leant her chin on his chest and met his eyes steadily. "I don't need to run anymore."

"You don't?" he asked in shock, hope flashing across his face.

"No. I would rather stay right here, right now and just be with you." she whispered.

She felt his smile more than she saw it. "Your brother has excellent timing." he pointed out, a bitter edge to his voice.

Elena scowled into his chest. "I meant it." she said softly after a while.

"Meant what?" he said hesitantly. She almost cried that he still couldn't accept that someone could love him.

"That I love you." she whispered gently.

He tensed again, seemingly unable to say anything. "You do?" he said after a while.

"I do. I have for a while." she said gently, willing him to just accept it. "I opened my eyes and I don't know about you but I saw forever in a different way that I saw a life of sixty or so more years."

"And Stefan?" he asked, his voice laced with pain.

"I talked to him." she said lightly.

Damon rose a eyebrow and looked at her. "I talked to him and I told him that you snuck up on me. That love was crazy and wild and all consuming and that you have to fight for it. I told him I didn't know when I fell for you." she paused for a moment, letting his take in her words. "I also told him, that even if he hadn't left, at one point we would have faced this because he saw it happen. He saw me fall a little bit more for you everyday."

"So this is it?" he asked quietly barely daring to properly hope.

"This is it." she smiled against his chest and she rested her head back against it.

He slowly cupped her face with his hands and pulled her up to meet his eyes. He leant forwards and pressed his lips to her so softly she almost pulled away in shock.

She smiled against him as she pressed her mouth to his and pulled him closer. "Do you believe me?" she murmured between kisses.

He rolled them over so he was pinning her to the bed. He made a questioning noise, never leaving her lips.

"What I said." she spoke into his ear as he kissed his way up and down her neck.

"And what did you say?" he muttered playfully, before claiming her lips again.

She laughed, knowing exactly what game he was playing. She pulled away. She looked into his smiling eyes and her heart exploded at the sight. This was Damon, truly Damon. A Damon stripped of all his attitude and sarcasm and simply being here in the moment and being the man he only let Elena glimpse.

"That I-" she kissed his lips grinning. "Love-" she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiling cheekily at him. "You." she whispered softly.

He sat up and pulled her with him, trapping her in his arms with her back pressed against his chest. His chin rested just on her shoulder and she could feel his warm breath in her ear when he spoke.

"And I love you." he whispered, his lips brushing against her ear sexily.

She pulled out of his arms and turned to face him, hands on hips. "Now, we have to go to Caroline's."

He rolled over and buried his face in the duvet, moaning. "No. You go."

She laughed and pulled him up, happy she was now strong enough to do that – even if he probably let her. "Without you?" she asked jokingly.

"She's _your_ friend." he pointed out reasonably as he pulled on a dark t-shirt, as usual.

"You're stuck with me now." she smirked, fluttering her eyelashes innocently.

He rolled his eyes and stuck his phone in his pocket. "So, do I get to kiss you spontaneously in public and take you places holding your hand? Can I show up at your house and steal you away for the weekend? Am I like your older, vampire boyfriend?" he asked, mischief glittering in his eyes.

"I'm a vampire too." she said dryly.

"Well?" he said, acting like a five year old.

"You're more than a boyfriend, Damon." she said softly, all kidding gone from her tone. "You're it for me."

He grabbed her around the waist and kissed her suddenly on the lips. "God, I love you." he laughed, smirking as she pulled away from him and grabbed her bag from the floor and standing by the doorway.

"Right back at you." she said flippantly, blowing him a kiss before darting off towards her car with Damon right behind her.


	10. I hate you, I Love You

They pulled up outside Caroline's house about fifteen minutes later.

"Caroline will shout at me." Elena pouted. "You made us very later. Now she won't shut up about it _forever_. Literally."

Damon leant back on the seat and closed his eyes. "She might just stake me." he said casually. "Although, Bonnie might give me one of those migraines because I can now do this-" he leant over to kiss her to make his point. "Whenever I like."

Elena winced. "She owes me. She'll be nice." she said, half promising herself.

Damon rolled his eyes and slid out of the passenger seat.

"Where's your car anyway?" she asked laughing. Damon loved his car more than he loved bourbon.

Damon scowled. "I left it halfway down the high way on my way to you after you decided to let Matt drive a car you were in. I haven't had time to go find it."

Elena suppressed a laugh at the look on his face. It was so forlorn it was comical.

"You left it." she said dryly, struggling not to laugh.

Damon glared at her. "I could run faster than it." he pointed out. "If you aren't careful I'll bully you into going to find it for me."

She pulled a face and made her way to the front door, knocking lightly preparing for Caroline's not so subtle hints, Bonnie's judgemental looks and Jeremy's shocked stares.

Bonnie opened the door quickly. "Where the hell have you two been?" she snapped. Elena noticed her eyes were different. As if they were hiding something.

"Comparing notes on witch aneurysms." Damon said pleasantly, brushing past Bonnie smiling condescendingly at her.

Bonnie immediately sobered and looked at her with sad eyes. "I'm so sorry." she whispered.

Elena shrugged. Yes, Bonnie had practically exploded her brain – numerous times in the space of a few seconds – but she had also thought she was attacking an enemy.

"You thought I was Katherine, it's okay." she brushed it off, not really wanting to remember the details.

"I'm so sorry." she repeated when suddenly a familiar spark flickered across her eyes. "So why did you and Damon take so long?" she asked slyly.

Elena fluttered her eyelashes and feigned innocence. "Whatever do you mean, Bon?"

Bonnie smacked her arms playfully, recoiling on slightly as the familiar image of death flashed before her. "Come on, give me _some_ credit. Jeremy called you nearly an _hour_ ago!" she squealed.

"You sound like our lovely blonde friend." she said laughing at her friend unusual exuberance.

Bonnie's eyes hardened just a little. "She's rubbing off on me." she said happily. "And I'm glad you're not..." she paused, struggling to find the words. "I'm glad you're still you." she said softly.

Elena smirked and moved forward only to be stopped by an invisible barrier, as if she had just walked into a wall.

"Damn." she cursed violently. "Can you invite me in even if I don't live here?" she asked Bonnie hopefully. "It was Caroline who invited Damon into my house."

Bonnie looked baffled. "I-uh-what?"

Elena laughed remembering how much Bonnie hated most vampires. She would never invite one into her house.

"Just invite me in!" she said exasperated as Bonnie stood in front of her nonplussed.

"Do you-uh- want to come in?" she said questioningly.

Elena rolled her eyes and hesitantly stuck her foot over the threshold, relieved when it didn't run into a rock hard, invisible wall.

She smiled as she shut the door softly before following Bonnie into Caroline's living room, where everyone was currently sitting, engaged in hushed conversation.

She shook her head softly and glanced around the room, stopping short as she saw Caroline.

Her usually perfectly made up friend was currently dressed in sweat pants and a hoodie with no makeup on with her hair thrown into a bun.

She was instantly beside her and hugging her tightly.

"Where have you been?" she said accusingly, glancing between her and Damon.

Elena bit her lips and looked towards Damon who just looked at her clearly saying 'you're-on-your-own-here'.

"The Boarding House." she said non-committally with a dismissal wave of her hand.

"We called you almost an hour ago" Caroline accused through narrowed eyes. "why would you take so long?" she said, mischief glinting behind her emerald cat eyes.

Elena glared at Caroline. "Not right now." she glanced at Bonnie too. "Later okay?" she said in a final tone.

Caroline huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine." she said.

"What's wrong, Car'? She said softly, gesturing towards her outfit.

Caroline's beautiful eyes filled with tears and she hugged her knees close to her chest – an action she had mimicked many times in her lifetime.

"I saw Tyler." she whispered.

Elena's eyed bugged out of their sockets and she threw a look at Damon, who looked unsurprised. They must have filled him in while he was talking to Bonnie.

"Did you talk to him?" she said quietly.

"No." she said sheepishly. "But-"

"You mean you didn't talk to him? Care! It might not have been him!" Elena said irritated. She had been dragged away to be told this. She'd thought it would be something slightly more dramatic.

"No, but it was him!" she insisted adamantly.

"You mean to say" Damon said frowning slightly. "you didn't actually talk to him? You dragged us all out here for nothing?"

Bonnie nodded in agreement. "Care, you could have called us. Me and Elena would have came over but you didn't need to drag everyone over here."

"So none of you are worried I saw my supposedly dead boyfriend?" she said incredulously.

Stefan sighed and took the gentler approach. "You loved him, Car'. So of course you want to think it was him. Sometimes I see you walk across the street and I think you're Lexi just because you are so like her." he said sadly.

Damon cringed, knowing he was the one who had killed the original 'Stefan's BFF' blonde vampire. It seemed he really didn't like blondes. He had killed Lexi, somehow managed to replace her with Caroline unintentionally which he regretted and constantly thought about staking her and then there was Rebekah who he _was_ going to stake when he saw her next.

"It was." she said stubbornly, glaring at them all. "You might as well leave since you were all so busy." she stared pointedly at Damon and Elena when she said that.

"Brilliant. Bye." Damon said before walking out the door, waving cheerily to Caroline.

Caroline huffed and glared at his back as he left the room.

"Looks like you're leaving too." she said softly to Elena.

"I can stay-" she began firmly, not wanting to leave her best friend alone.

She smiled weakly. "No, go. You two as well." She said to all three of them. "I'll call you both later." she promised softly.

"I love you Care." she said, hugging her blonde friend softly. "Call me, okay?" she whispered before leaving.

Caroline rose an eyebrow, smiling devilishly. "You call me. Wouldn't want to interrupt anything." she said winking.

Bonnie snorted. "We will get details, Elena." she said threateningly.

Stefan laughed softly, his eyes not as full of pain as they had a week ago. "Bye." he said, shaking his head as he left and vampire speeded off in the direction of town.

Bonnie and Caroline engulfed her in a tight hug, giggling maniacally in the process. "Go!" they commanded.

She playfully smacked them both before joining Damon leaning against the car.

He cocked an ear to the house, where the rusting of curtains could be heard. She sighed, knowing her two best friends would be staring out of Caroline's bedroom window, trying to figure out what was going on between them both.

His eyes sparkled mischievously as he pulled her close to him, one hand pressed firmly against her lower back and the other cupping her face gently.

She shook her head at him, pressing her lips against his while trying her best to ignore the squeals she could hear.

"You know what?" she said playfully.

"What?" he murmured against her lips, still placing sweet kisses on them.

"I'm staying here tonight." she announced loud enough for Caroline to hear her.

He paused his kisses. "I hate you, Elena Gilbert." he said grumpily. "I hate you, but I love you." he said softer that before, although Caroline's hearing would still pick it up.

"_Did you hear that? Did you _hear_ that! Oh right yeah. Human. He just said he loved her!" _Caroline squealed from inside her house.

"_Well obviously Caroline. He's always loved her." _Bonnie's unsurprised voice filled her ears.

"I love you too." she said softly, pulling him closer to crush her lips to his.

"_No. Freaking. Way. She said it back."_

"_WHAT!" _

"Go inside before I drag you back home with me." he muttered irritably.

"Bye Damon." she smirked, kissing him once more before sauntering off towards the front door.

* * *

_A/N: Really not the best chapter but I wanted to get at least one more post up before tomorrow._

_Vagrants M.C may be updated if I find time to write it but they take the longest because they tend to be always double one of my regular chapters and I am going to Spain (WOO) tomorrow so as much as I love you all, I won't be writing or uploading. :P_

_-E_


	11. Sky is Blue, Grass is Green

The door was yanked open before she even reached it, revealing a very shocked blonde vampire and and equally shocked brunette witch.

She smirked to herself and sidled past them and making herself comfortable on Caroline's bed.

"Elena." Caroline said patiently. "If you don't start talking I'm going to break your arm."

Elena sat up and smiled at her two friends. "You wouldn't Care." she said grinning, seeing right through her friend's threat.

Caroline huffed and sat down folding her arms. "Elena" she whined. "he said he loved you!"

Bonnie giggled and rolled her eyes. "Caroline, everyone knows he loves her. It's just one of those things. The sky is blue, the grass is green, Damon loves Elena. It's normal. You don't question it." she shrugged and folded her arms as well.

"But what isn't normal is Elena saying it back." she said, looking at Elena, daring her to say something irrelevant.

"What do you want me to say?" she said weakly.

Caroline's eyes bulged. "Elena!" she squeaked. "We were both completely in the dark about how you felt about him! Sure I noticed the attraction but I never thought it would come to _this_!"

"I thought you were looking for Stefan?" Bonnie said accusingly.

"And in the process I finally got it into my head how I feel about him!" she said defensively.

"Have you kissed him?" Bonnie asked interestedly.

"Course she has." Caroline smirked. "When he was dying she kissed him." she announced proudly causing Bonnie's jaw to drop.

"He was _dying_." she protested weakly, the same feelings Damon had brought up resurfaced. Did no one see how his almost death had affected her? She had almost lost him – forever. She had held him in her arms as he lay dying.

"So you kissed him?" Bonnie squealed, clapping her hands excitedly.

"It wasn't the only time. I've kissed him like, three times." she snapped, desperately trying to move on from that night.

Both girls silenced immediately, mouths hanging open.

"You've kissed more than once? More than just a simple goodbye kiss?" Caroline said, slightly put out.

"It wasn't a goodbye kiss!" she said indignantly. "I just had to kiss him just once incase he did die. It wasn't to say goodbye."

"Stop dodging, Elena." Bonnie said laughing.

Elena rolled her eyes exasperated. "Guys!"

"Elena!" they said together mockingly.

"He kissed me the night Jeremy left." she said in a small voice.

"You mean when he was sent away." Bonnie snapped bitterly fidgeting with her fingernails.

"Not important Bon." Caroline said impatiently. "Details!" she squealed.

Bonnie smiled apologetically and nodded wildly, not saying a word until Elena continued.

"I felt so bad. I knew I'd taken away his freedom. I knew he'd want to stay and help, but he's my baby brother. I couldn't watch him go through all of that. Everything bad that's happened to him has been my fault." she whispered quietly into the silent room. "But he made me feel better. He took away just enough of the guilt and the pain so I could move on. It's just what he's always done."

"And someone how this led to kissing?" Caroline asked amusedly.

Elena rolled her eyes. "We were talking about Stefan-"

"So talking about Stefan got you onto kissing?" Bonnie said aghast. "'Lena, that's just weird." she exclaimed while Caroline nodded in agreement.

Elena swatted at her arm shaking her head. "No!" she paused. "Well not really. He said he was feeling guilty about wanting what he wanted." she smiled softly, playing with the edge of the comforter. "So he went to leave but he turned back and said if he was going to feel guilt about something he was going to feel guilty about this." she paused grinning, playing with both girls nerves. "And he kissed me."

Caroline squealed and clapped her hands together. "DID YOU KISS HIM BACK? Elena, I swear to god if you didn't kiss him back I may have-"

"Yes Car'. I kissed him back." she announced in a stage whisper.

"You know I'll never ever say this again" Bonnie said frowning slightly. "But I actually think he's good for you."

Elena stared at her eyebrows raised. "You think Damon is good for me?"

"Why, don't you?" she said laughing.

"I know he is. I know _him_. That's the whole point." she grinned at her two best friends. "You guys don't know him."

Caroline scoffed. "Well I don't think he's good for you."

"You just threatened me about not kissing him back!"

Caroline was blunt, but her bluntness came from a deep caring for her friends. If she said something she meant it and you normally needed to hear it – whether you wanted to or not.

Caroline sighed. "He may not be good for you from what I've experienced." Elena cringed sadly. Out of all the things Damon had done in the past, the way he had treated her best friend was one of the worst.

Bonnie sighed and spoke up. "Caroline, I will deny this for the rest of eternity but he _is_ good for her." Elena stared at the brunette in open shock. Bonnie, the vampire hating witch, was defending Damon, a vampire who she hated more than anyone?

"How?" Caroline challenged. "If she's happy then I'm all for it but really, what makes anything he stands for good?"

"If Damon had been there when Matt drove of Wickery bridge she would be human right now." Bonnie said. Elena suddenly understood. No matter what personal grudge Bonnie felt against Damon she knew he would move heaven and earth to keep her safe and to keep her alive.

"Stefan would try just as hard to safe her!" Caroline exclaimed. "He would never just let her die! He would never do anything to hurt her! He has never hurt her of his own free will! Damon has!"

Elena almost spoke up. She almost spilled her guts about everything. She had distanced herself from both her best friends and though they knew what she had gone through they didn't truly understand. They had barely seen the depth of either Salvatore brother's change and neither would ever completely understand it. Stefan, good, pure Stefan, had changed into a monster – the kind of monster who kept a track of names in a Chicago apartment just so he would never forget any of those he had killed. So he would be able to look back and remember how it felt as each of their lives drained away. He had become a monster and even if he hid it deep in himself the facade he had kept up when she first met him wasn't real and it wasn't a real person she had fallen so quickly for.

Damon on the other hand, Damon – the crazy, impulsive vampire to use Klaus' words, had changed from the biggest worry and threatening person in her life to one of the most stable. He had changed from a precariously wobbling overhang to a steady, constant rock, positioned firmly next to her because he knew just how much she needed him. She had been irritated by him, hated him, laughed with him. She had liked him as a friend and fought so many emotions until she came to a firm conclusion – that she loved him.

No matter what she told her friends all they would remember was the bad, they would only remember a time when Elena had despised him so much. When she had wanted nothing more than to see him gone. Now, after everything she had fallen completely in love with him. 'Love, hate – such a fine line.' actually made slight sense to her.

"But he did." Elena said softly. "Not on purpose. I told him to save Matt and he did."

"If he had saved you Matt would be dead." she said softly.

"I know."

"But Damon would have done everything in his power to save them both." Bonnie said confidently. There was something to certain in her voice it made Elena question everything. If Bonnie could side with Damon, why was everything else so damn complicated? "And he is the only person I trust _100% _to keep you alive."

Caroline squealed indignantly. "Bon!"

"Car'!" she mocked. "Come on, Care! Damon would _die _for her with absolutely no hesitation. He will do whatever it takes to keep her alive."

"So would I!" she almost yelled, hurt flashing in her eyes.

"She's right, Care." Elena said calmly. "You would consider everyone's feelings and everyone's opinions and it would alter your actions whereas Damon-"

"Will do whatever the hell he wants and no one expects anything different from him." Bonnie finished, smiling slightly.

Elena laughed with her best friend while the blonde stared at them open mouthed.

"Care." Elena said sweetly as she sat down next to her and pulled her into a hug. She paused, trying to find words that might give her even a glimpse of understanding. "You may not like it, or agree with it, but the Damon you think of when I say his name is not the Damon who I know now."

Caroline opened her mouth to protest but Bonnie hastily shushed her and both waited silently, urging her to continue.

"If I say he's changed will you believe me?" she asked hopefully, unable to find words that would make sense to her two best friends. Caroline was stubborn, and wouldn't believe a thing until she saw it when it came to people changing. She'd always had a belief that whoever you were on the inside was who you truly were no matter how many facades you kept up to hide it

She suddenly had a brainwave. "When you first met Stefan as a vampire you saw who he was, who he was pretending to be and we all believed it but he turned around as shoved it back in our faces and left a trail of bodies up and down the eastern seaboard! He has a face he puts on, and whether it's true and an actual part of him it isn't who he truly is! He's a Ripper and he's a vampire! He's not an innocent schoolboy! It was an act and it disappeared in a heartbeat! He might be back now and he might act the same but can you truly look me in the eye and tell me you see him no differently?" Elena exclaimed desperately, finally letting out some of the hurt Stefan had placed there.

She was met with silence. Neither girl spoke up. They looked at her in shock and a deep sadness on their face as if they just understood something they hadn't before.

"But when Damon came here at first he was a complete asshole and we believed that too! He killed people and there was a time when he was all I had to worry about! And now I have to worry about the Originals coming after us, I have to worry about my ex-boyfriend being a ripper, I have to worry about the fact that Klaus' sired _our bloodline _yet we're still alive! I've had to worry all summer and I would have completely fallen apart if Damon hadn't kept keeping me together! He may have been an ass who killed people for the hell of it and had no remorse whatsoever but now he's shown who he actually is. He's good, truly good he just won't show it!"

"If he won't show it how can you be sure?" Caroline whispered quietly.

"Because I've seen it Car'. I've seen the good of Stefan turn straight into bad. I've accepted both parts of him and accepted the Ripper is who he is. I've seen the ass Damon – who I actually managed to get along with at points – and I've seen the Damon that exists now and I've accepted both of them too. Whether I like it or not the Stefan I fell in love with wasn't real. The good parts of him are still there but while I loved the good I could never love the bad but the Damon I love now, and the Damon he was before are all part of the person who I love now. God, that doesn't even make sense."

Bonnie didn't say a word she just wrapped Elena in a tight hug and murmured in her ear. "I'm sorry." What she was sorry for she couldn't figure out exactly but she knew Bonnie just meant it for everything, everything she had gone through that she hadn't understood.

Caroline smiled slightly and met Elena's eyes before looking at Bonnie and grinned widely. "Bon, do you remember when Elena talked this much about a guy that last time?"

Bonnie burst out laughing and waggled her finger at Elena. "No! I remember we tried to talk to you about Matt and we got nothing! No big speech either!"

"Shut up!" She yelled smiling, chucking a pillow at Caroline who ducked with vampire speed and hurled it back.

"Actually Car' I think she talked for this long yelling about Tyler after he pushed her in the lake, remember?" she said smiling.

Caroline smile immediately disappeared. "Yeah." she smiled sadly, her eyes far away. "I remember."

Elena glared at Bonnie. Why bring up Tyler, _now_?

"I'm so sorry." she said stricken.

"It's okay. It was nice to think of him just for a second, even if it was only a second before I remembered he's gone." she whispered.

"He's not gone. You did see him earlier." Bonnie whispered so quietly their vampire barely picked it up. "Neither is Klaus."

Caroline's head snapped to Bonnie, her eyes pleading with her.

"What?" Elena almost yelled. She had thought everything would be over now. She wouldn't have to worry about a vengeful Original coming after her after discovering he couldn't make more hybrids. She had thought Klaus wasn't the sire of our bloodline and he was dead and gone and they were all safe.

"Klaus is in Tyler's body." she said calmly as thought it was the most normal thing in the world.

"How do you know?" she and Caroline gasped simultaneously, although they were both asking about different people.

Bonnie looked up, staring blankly at a patch of wall directly between both of their heads.

"Because I put him there."

* * *

_Apologies for taking so long to upload but I always write in the middle of the night, it's just something I've always done. I start around midnight and keep writing until I'm out of ideas and I've not had the time, energy or inspiration to do that since I got back. Reviews are love, let me know what you think! Other stories will be updated... eventually. _


	12. Hell's Frozen Over

Elena stared at her friend open mouthed, her mind barely comprehending the five words that had been uttered out of Bonnie's mouth.

Bonnie, the fierce protecter of all things human was sacrificing everything she had ever worked for and been granted with to help a hybrid stay alive,

Caroline's hand slipped into hers and squeezed it tightly.

"Why?" Caroline said in a voice so full of sadness it made Elena's heart clench.

"I had to save you." Bonnie whispered.

"I don't care about Klaus! I don't care that I know you only did this to save your mum and not for any of the rest of us!" Caroline yelled. "Why _Tyler_? You made me believe he was dead! You made me feel like an _idiot_ for thinking he was alive! There were so many people you could have placed him inside, there are still a handful of hybrids just as dedicated to Klaus but you put him into the one that would hurt me most!"

Bonnie paled and stood up frantically. "No! Car' no!"

"Don't." Elena said steadily. "She's right, whatever your reasons for saving Klaus, why Tyler?" her voice wavered slightly. She had been close to Tyler once. They had been inseparable as children – they all had. No matter how long they went without talking much he was in nearly every memory of her childhood.

"What was I supposed to do? Klaus wanted me to do it! We can't fight him!" Bonnie said through her tears.

"Yes we can!" Elena cried. "We _have_ been fighting him! We've been fighting against him for months now and we're still alive!"

"You're dead Elena!" she shouted helplessly.

Elena stared in shock and gently pulled Caroline backwards. "You should go." Caroline whispered quietly, tears silently tracking down her cheeks.

Bonnie stared at her two best friends silently, unable to put into words any emotion she might be feeling. She just turned and walked away.

Sometimes it's all you can do.

* * *

They just sat there in silence staring at the door Bonnie had just walked out of with Caroline still gripping her hand tightly. She couldn't do anything more than hug her tightly and lead her to her car.

She wouldn't leave her alone and as far as most people knew Elena Gilbert was somewhere in hospital or missing or dead after a car accident. Liz wouldn't want to find a sobbing Caroline and a walking, talking, semi-living Elena in her daughter's bedroom.

Caroline didn't ask where she was going she just sat in the passenger seat looking so completely lost. It was as if she didn't know what to do with herself in a world that wasn't what she thought it was. In a world of vampires, werewolves and witches sometimes all she could hold onto was the fact that her friends had become her family and would stand by her through everything. For Bonnie to turn on them all and side with Klaus and take away a man Caroline completely loved had rocked them both.

She pulled up outside the Boarding House and stole a glance at the blonde. The Caroline sitting in her car right now wasn't the Caroline everyone was used to. The hyperactive control freak was gone and replaced by a girl who had had the one person she loved taken away from her and then inhabited by an enemy.

"Care?" she asked quietly.

Caroline tore her gaze away from the window and her green eyes locked onto the brown. The face she saw completely crushed her. Caroline, the eternally strong, eternally positive vampire was sitting across from her looking completely broken for reasons she would never understand. In the same way Caroline couldn't completely understand Elena about Damon and all the little details that could crush her in a second she knew she would never understand Tyler and Caroline and what they were to each other. They had fought so hard to be together, Caroline risking death just to be with him and Tyler breaking every bone in his body over a hundred times just to have a little control over what he was born to be. After all that, he had been ripped away from her and just as she gained a second of relief knowing he wasn't dead she had been informed it wasn't Tyler – it was the man who had indirectly caused his death.

Elena just squeezed her hand and opened Caroline's door and led her inside, lending her strength and comfort should she need it.

"Elena?" Damon was by her side the second she walked in the door. "Caroline?" he added softly. "What happened?" he whispered in a mild panic to both of them.

Caroline shook her head as more tears spilled down her face. She let them fall again and again soaking into her shirt. Elena looked helplessly between two vampires she loved so much and just shook her head at Damon and led Caroline away.

* * *

Damon stared after them, completely at loss for words. Caroline was in pieces. _Caroline, _the obnoxiously bubbly immortal teenager had been standing in front of him moments ago completely broken on both the outside and the inside.

He knew Caroline didn't like him much and she had no reason to but that didn't stop him worrying about her, even if it was only indirectly and through the reasoning that what hurt her so much had obviously hurt Elena too. What could make her fall apart like that? Even through Tyler's death she had held it together. Even her father dying hadn't affected her this much. He dropped onto the sofa and ran his hands helplessly through his hair, tapping his foot as he agonized over whether to go upstairs or wait until Elena came back.

He stayed where he was. The blonde did not like him and had come to expect sarcastic remarks whenever he was around. He wouldn't make her put up guards against his emotionless taunting. He sighed to himself. Everyone saw him that way. The immortal Damon Salvatore – completely insincere about anything and covering everything up with an obnoxious amount of sarcasm and quick remarks. No wonder not many people liked him much.

A sad looking Elena appeared at the door. He stood up immediately unsure of how to react. They just stared at each other. He knew she could read the look in his eyes – she was one of the few people that could see how he was feeling just with a glance. Within a second she had flown across the room and into his arms. Her face buried itself in his neck and his strong arms held her tightly.

"Hey hey." he murmured. "Is Caroline okay?" he asked worriedly as he pulled back slightly and cupped her face so she was looking up at him. The look in her eyes struck his heart hard. It was defeated. It was completely at loss of what to do.

He didn't know what to do other that to pull her close and stroke her hair softly, murmuring soft words in her ear.

"She will be." she replied quietly, pressing her face deeper into his neck.

"Talk to me." he begged her. He wasn't used to feeling so in the dark. Whenever she was sad or scared or angry he knew what caused it. He knew how to help her but now? Now he had nothing to do other than to hold her close and let her know he was here for whatever she needed.

"Tyler is alive." she said in an ambiguous tone. He frowned ever so slightly and loosened his embrace.

"Is that bad?" he asked haltingly. "But Caroline was so upset. She looked completely _crushed_-" he started, trying to wrap his head around everything. He was cut off almost immediately by her sweet voice.

"Klaus is alive."

His whole world stopped. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. "He won't hurt you." he promised her as much as he promised himself. Klaus' focus in life had always been clear. Find the doppelgänger. Attempt to break the curse. Repeat as many times as necessary. Curse broken all he wanted was more hybrids and he's needed Elena's blood to do so.

Klaus got what he wanted and he destroyed whoever stood in his way. Now Klaus was alive and Elena was a vampire and he would hunt them down and kill them all.

"I know." she said weakly as she sat down heavily on the sofa, pulling him down with her. He pulled her back into the circle of his arms feeling better while he held her.

"How?" he breathed into her ear.

"Bonnie put him in Tyler's body." she snapped bitterly. "Out of all the hybrids she could have used she used Tyler!" she almost yelled, angry tears rolling down her cheeks.

He held her face in his hands and wiped away the tears with his thumbs. "People do crazy things for the people they love." he said ruefully.

She almost smiled. It was just a slight twitch of her lips but it was start. "But it's expected of you." she said, a slight hint of laughter in her voice.

"Witchy had a lot to lose." he said almost reasonably. Hell must have frozen over if he was defending _Bonnie_. "Her mom, Caroline, Stefan, you, me."

Elena actually did laugh this time, thought what he said was completely serious. "I like that you're laughing and everything... but why?" he asked grinning.

"Pigs must be flying somewhere." she giggled. "You're defending Bonnie. She was defending you earlier. She's sided with Klaus and possibly ended a lifelong friendship with Caroline."

"You said Bonnie was defending me?" he gaped, unsure if she was joking.

She relaxed into his arms. He leant back onto the cushions, comforted by the familiar routine of things. She laughed and nodded. "She will deny it but she said you were good for me and stuck up for you when Caroline said you weren't."

He sat in shock. Hell had definitely frozen over. He pressed a light kiss to her hair and inhaled the scent of her. They sat there in silence, just enjoying being together. His eyes had just started to close when he felt a sharp drop of liquid fall onto his bare forearm and the scent of salt in the air.

He turned her around firmly and kissed her cheek gently where the tear lay. "You'll be okay." he said quietly.

She nodded and wiped her eyes where more tears threatened to fall. They fell anyway. He wiped them away with his fingers and looked straight into her eyes. "What's really wrong?" he asked as he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "And don't tell me you're worried about Caroline."

"I'm scared." she mouthed at him, unable to form the words.

His heart almost broke. "Why?" he said brokenly.

"Because it's Klaus and he's alive and I'm a vampire." she said frantically as tears fell rapidly down her cheeks. "He can't make hybrids so he'll tear us all apart just to spite us!"

"He won't touch you." he said viciously. "And it was his own damn sister's fault you drove off of that bridge!"

"Like he'll care! He'll still kill us and stick Rebekah in a coffin for another ninety years!"

"Elena!" was all he said. What else could he say?

"Damon!" she almost screamed at him. "Everything bad that happens is my fault!"

That stopped him. He took her hands calmly between his and pressed them to his chest. "Nothing is your fault. If Stefan and I hadn't come back no one would ever had know you existed. You would have lived a normal life and met a normal guy. It's our fault."

"If you hadn't come here I wouldn't have met you." she whispers softly, the words too familiar to the night he almost died for him to miss the similarity.

He leans forward and presses his lips hesitantly to hers. He felt her smile against his mouth as she pulled him closer and threaded her hands into his dark hair. "I love you." she whispered so quietly he almost doesn't hear her.

"I know." he whispers back, kissing her sweetly once more. A knock on the door shattered to soft atmosphere that had woven it's way in between them. She sighed and stood up, reluctantly making her way towards the door. He sat up and watched her go, wondering who would even knock the door. Stefan would just walk in, someone who meant harm would just break in, Bonnie wouldn't show her face and Matt was still in ICU. Anyone else would call. No one would just turn up and _knock._

He heard her open the door and the muted word that escaped her lips.

"Tyler."

* * *

_yeah, cause that wasn't obvious. LOL, love you guys for putting up with my obnoxiously clichéd cliffhangers.. One more chapter for this story to go up after this then I'm away until Friday morning. I'm sorry I'm going away so much :( I hate leaving you hanging. _

_Kidding. I totally love it._

_ALSO._

_Those reading Vagrants M.C I hate myself right now for not uploading in SO LONG but I am almost completed chapter 6 and that should be up sometime this weekend or slightly after. Inspiration for different stories comes and goes, those who have read me since I started (which was really only just after the S3 finale) know I have no schedule, only an extremely random and I'm sure extremely irritating habit on uploading loads in one week then nothing the next. I am sorry and it really annoys me when I don't upload :( thank you for sticking with me!_

_-E _


	13. Some things You Just Don't Play With

_A/N: I love some things about this chapter and then I hate somethings. Ugh, i'd love it if you would let me know what you think about this one. Away until Friday to a place with no wifi and my phone isn't exactly good for writing and uploading 2,000 odd words... Oh the joys. _

* * *

She swung open the heavy oak door to reveal a face she never thought she would see again until an hour or so ago.

"Tyler." she gasped. A strange feeling washing over her. Relief? Anger? It was indescribable. Here was one of her childhood best friends who she had believed was dead and he was standing there looking at her as if everything was right in the world.

Except it wasn't.

This wasn't Tyler. She couldn't let herself forget that.

"Elena, where's Caroline?" he said panicked. "Elena, please. I can't find her anywhere!"

Damon appeared next to her out of nowhere. "Why are you here?" he asked through gritted teeth. "She doesn't need to see you."

Tyler's eyes widened in shock. "Is she okay?"

"Of course she's not okay!" Elena said, struggling to keep her voice low.

"Elena! I need to see her! I need to know she's okay!" he pleaded. She was taken aback. Either Klaus was playing his role very well or actually had true feelings for Caroline. "Where is she?" he repeated, more firmly this time.

"If I say she's upstairs completely broken will you leave?" Damon said coldly. Elena looked at him in slight shock. He had never showed outward feelings to any of her friends and here he was, doing everything he could to stop her best friend's hurting.

Tyler's eye's bulged. "What's wrong with her?" he almost yelled. "I need to see her!"

"Why?" Elena screamed. "Why are you going to put her through that?" Anger was coursing through her veins like a sudden red hot fire. She felt a soft hand on her shoulder pulling her back.

"It's okay." Damon whispered. Just his voice saying those two words calmed her down. If he was in control then she could be too.

"Elena?" Caroline called softly. "Who-?" she began to ask before stepping into the hallway and stopping short at the sight of Tyler in the doorway.

"You're okay." Tyler breathed in relief.

Caroline froze for a few seconds before she flew at them, attacking every part of him she could with her hands. "Give him back!" she yelled. "Give him back to me!"

"Caroline!" Tyler said bewildered. "WHO?" he bellowed.

"Stop it, stop it!" she sobbed, still hitting him repeatedly with her clenched fists. "You're not him! You died. This _isn't_ you!"

Elena could almost scream. She couldn't help her best friend because she was so lost in her own grief.

"Why him!?" she yelled, tears streaming down her gorgeous face. "Why did you take him away?"

"Car'-" Tyler said brokenly. "I don't know how to help you." he said in an agonized voice. Elena had to look away. How could he be so familiar? Did Klaus actually have feelings for Caroline? Was her hurting so badly actually hurting him?

"Give him back to me!" she cried brokenly. "Take someone else away!"

Damon suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Caroline around the waist, hauling her backwards so she couldn't keep attacking him.

"Caroline." he said soothingly. "Caroline. It's okay." There was no reaction. She just stood there, fighting against his grip with tears running rapidly down her face. "Caroline!" he bellowed, quickly standing in front of her gripping her forearms tightly. "It's okay." he said, much softer.

She seemed to listen to him. She seemed to hear him or take in his words in some way. She just nodded, gulping air in rapidly. She breathed deeply with her eyes closed, getting herself under control until the tears stopped falling. Damon stepped back from her slightly and looked her dead in the eyes. "You're okay. You're fine." he said firmly before he stepped aside and wound his fingers through Elena's.

Elena stared in wonder at them both. "How do you do that?" she whispered in shock. He looked at her questioningly. "Look at her." she gestured towards Caroline who was staring, completely composed, at Tyler. Not saying a word and neither was he. "how did you do that?"

Damon shrugged and released her hands and wrapped an arm around her shoulders instead. "Sometimes all you need is a little time to breath and sometimes all you need to do to help is give them that."

"You're better than they think." she said to herself unthinkingly. He kissed her hair lightly, leaving his cheek resting on her crown.

"Why him?" Caroline asked coolly. "Why not someone else?"

"What are you talking about?" Tyler yelled. "Who?"

"You know who!" she yelled, loosing her calm demeanour. Damon stepped away from her slightly, ready to pull her back.

"Actually he doesn't." A slick voice came from the bushes.

Four pairs of eyes snapped to the voice.

"No." Caroline said, shaking her head. "No no no no."

"What have you done?" Damon said aghast. "There are some things you don't play with, Klaus."

Klaus grinned and leant casually against the outside door frame. "Alright, love?" he asked Caroline cheekily.

"I hate you!" she yelled, tears of anger overspilling. "Do you enjoy coming into every town you see and leaving a trail of death, destruction and heartbreak behind you?"

"This was merely a miscommunication on Bonnie's part." he said pleasantly. "Apparently you two left before she could explain I was getting my own body back today.

Caroline raised a shaking hand to her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "I hate you." she breathed. "I actually thought there was something redeemable inside of you."

Klaus flinched as if she had hit him. "I was wrong." she spat out at him, turning and leaving them all standing in the hallway.

"Car'? Tyler said weakly. Caroline spun around rapidly, her eyes wide in shock as if she had forgotten he was there. Suddenly, with a speed that was fast even for a vampire she was in his arms. He laughed loudly and pulled her close to him.

"I love you. I love you. I love you." she repeated over and over again. "I love you so much."

Elena couldn't help but smile. If there was one person who could go from sad to angry to happy it was Caroline, except with a vampire and especially if that vampire was Caroline it was more it was more completely crushed to a tidal wave of rage to pure euphoria.

"I love you too." Tyler said softly. "But I'm confused as hell."

Caroline exploded into laughter. "I don't care." she flung her arms around his neck and it looked as though she would never let go. "You're you, nothing else matters." she whispered to him.

Elena smirked and gently pulled on Damon's hand until he stopped shifting awkwardly from foot to foot and took the lead and led her upstairs to him room.

She sat down heavily on the bed and ruffled her hair. "I don't even know how I should be feeling right now."

Damon came and laid down on his back next to her. "There are some things you just don't play with." he repeated.

She looked at him and traced small circles with her thumb on the back of his hands. "Like what?"

"Like a heart." he said bitterly, sounding unbearably sad.

"And friendships." she added softly lying back beside him.

"She did what she did to keep us alive and to keep you sane." he said quietly while staring at the ceiling.

"It's not that she saved Klaus – it's that she used Tyler."

He stroked her cheek softly before rolling on top of her and resting his cheek on her chest.

"I feel weird defending Bonnie." he admitted cringing. "I mean she's tried to kill me multiple times."

"You tried to kill her first." she pointed out smiling. "And she did save you that one time at the Founder's day celebration."

"I know." he said slightly bitterly.

"What's up?" she asked confused by his tone.

He sighed and closed his eyes, his head still resting on her chest. "In my mind, that night was our first kiss." he said quietly.

"But it was Katherine." she said sadly. Before she had known how she felt about him she had been secretly curious as to what he had said to 'her'. She had always wanted to know how she would react.

"Yes." he said just as sadly. "but it would have been wrong if I'd kissed you then."

"And it wasn't when I kissed you?" she asked grinning. "Twice?"

"Nope." he insisted, popping the 'p' smiling widely.

"What was it you said to her?" she asked gently.

He turned his head back to look at her. "I don't remember everything, didn't want to." he said shortly before he sat up slowly, pulling her up with him and looking her straight in the eyes. "but I do remember parts of it."

He gazed at her deeply. She could already feel herself moving closer automatically, her eyes searching every inch of his face.

"I said something along the lines that Bonnie didn't save me for _me_. She did it for you." he paused and flicked his gaze from her eyes to her lips briefly. "And that meant that somewhere along the way you had decided that I was worth saving." He reached out and stroked her cheek gently. "And I wanted to thank you for that." he said softly, gazing into her eyes. "I just never got the chance before now."

She couldn't contain herself any longer. She crashed her lips to his, causing him to laugh and pull her in closer to him. "If it _had_ been me I might not have kissed you." she began as she broke away for a second before he claimed her mouth again. "But I would have wanted to." she murmured against his lips before he consumed her so utterly she couldn't think straight.

Her mind became a jumble of love, lust and passion. All it held was the way his lips felt against hers and the way his eyes looked as he trailed them over her body. She couldn't feel any of the pain that she has endured over the past few years only the way his lips felt as they trailed up and down her body and the way her skin scorched as he slid his hands over her hips and travelled up her sides to her neck, expertly sliding her shirt off as he went.

She smiled and rolled over so she was straddling him, working her hands up his abdomen as his shirt joined hers on the floor with her lips never leaving his. She moaned into his mouth as his warm hands trailed over her stomach and across her ribs sending tingles of electricity all over her body.

He flipped them over so he was pressed against the length of her body trailing warm kisses up and down every inch of available skin. He paused only for a second as he reached her jeans. She laughed and nodded when he looked at her. Even now, he wanted to make sure she had no regrets.

Another night, another day she knew he would have tortured her but tonight wasn't that night. All they both wanted was to be together in a way neither had barely allowed themselves to imagine in heir deepest dreams. As he pressed himself to her he guided Elena's lips back to meet his, pulling her closer and holding her there in more ways than one. Just as he had promised her all those months ago, he wasn't ever leaving her and she wouldn't let him go without a fight even if he tried.


	14. One Thousand Different Neurones

She woke up slowly, the same way she always did after a long sleep, and blinked groggily at her surroundings. She smiled slowly and let her eyes drift close again just as strong arms pulled her firmly against a hard body.

"I know you're awake." He whispered seductively in her ear, sending shivers shooting down her spine.

"I'm not awake yet." She murmured, rolling over gently to face him. As always, her breath caught as she saw his eyes. No matter how often she saw him the startling blueness still made her stop and stare in wonder.

He pressed his lips against her neck slowly, teasingly trailing his way over her neck taking an achingly long time for him to finally make it to her lips. The second his lips were on hers she threaded her hands threw his hair and refused to let him move. He pulled back regardless of her strong arms and grinned wickedly at her as he started his agonizingly slow trail back over her body.

"You're evil." She said breathlessly. He murmured against the hollow of her throat sending electricity through her body.

"And don't you know it." He whispered as he claimed her mouth again kissing her sweetly, once, twice, three times. She sighed and flipped them over so her knees were resting on either side of stomach. She kissed him slowly and mocking his actions trailed her mouth seductively down his body until she reached his hipbones. He moaned and used his advantage of strength against her to pull her up to kiss her fiercely.

"I'm crazy in love with you." He whispered into her ear, placing a soft kiss there.

"And I hear Caroline downstairs." She said before rolling off of Damon's body and heading towards the door, pulling on his button up shirt over her underwear.

"I take it back." He said bitterly, glaring at the offending clothes. "But you do look good in my shirt." He raised his eyebrows suggestively and grinned at her, smiling with his eyes melting her heart.

She sighed and leant against the doorframe. "Well her vamp hearing probably heard everything, wearing your shirt isn't gonna give anything away."

Damon snorted and pushed himself up onto his elbows. "You forget she was reunited with her previously dead wolf turned vamp boyfriend."

She shook her head and rummaged around in the dresser before a pair of sweat with she threw forcefully at Damon, laughing gleefully as they hit him in the face. She guessed she could have dodged but where would the fun be in that.

He stood up slowly and dragged the sweats over his legs. Unlike her he hadn't put underwear on so she couldn't help but grin slyly and kiss him when he appeared in front of her.

"It's Caroline she will have picked up on it." She said, walking out the door and wandering downstairs. "Trust me."

By this time they were in the kitchen, interrupting a fiercely making out couple on the counter top.

Damon scowled and stalked past them to the fridge and grabbing a blood bag, chucking one at her. "In the kitchen, Barbie? Really?" he said in contempt.

"Yes." She said shortly, glaring at him. Elena sighed and sat at the breakfast bar. Maybe she just had to accept Caroline would never get on with Damon completely but if Bonnie could get over his past, couldn't Caroline? She had though that after yesterday, when he had been there to help her that she might began to accept him.

"Keep it in the bedroom!" he yelled after her as she flounced out the kitchen with Tyler following slightly after her. He paused at the doorway and turned around, facing Damon awkwardly.

"I just want to say," he started slowly, looking at Damon sincerely. "I'm sorry I bit you and I'm sorry you had to go through that because of me."

Damon opened his mouth, probably to shoot out a bitter remark but closed it gently, glancing at Elena for a split second. He sighed and held his hand out. Tyler took it and shook it firmly already looking more relieved. "I'm sorry Damon. I really am."

Damon nodded softly and released his hand. "You weren't in control. Teaches me right for trying to help."

"That another reason, I know you don't get on with Care and you only helped her because of Elena, but still," Tyler stopped and turned his deep, brown eyes to Elena's for a moment. "Thank you."

He shrugged and sat down on the breakfast bar, leaning his hand on the back of Elena's stool. "If she had been bitten by you that night things would have been different."

That simple moment that had Tyler biting Damon had changed the course of everything. A split second of time and a thousand different neurons firing directly affected everything that had led up to this moment. A slight difference in the events of that night could have drastically changed their whole lives and the people in them.

"Different isn't always good." Tyler said softly, his gaze far away. She stared at him sadly, guessing she was think about everything that had happened to him over the past few months.

"It is this time." She whispered into the silent room, staring at Damon's face.

"I didn't just help her for Elena." Damon said, staring at a wall with a strange expression on his face. "I couldn't let her die, so for unknown reason's I risked by life, and got bitten by you, just to help keep her safe and keep you from rampaging through the woods unchecked."

"I could have protected myself." Caroline said softly from the doorway. Elena stared between her and Damon, half expecting it to end with one of them dead.

"You were turned what, a year ago?" he said sarcastically. "I wasn't letting you wander off into the woods with a shifting werewolf without my help."

Caroline smiled softly, a new understanding glimmering beneath her eyes. Tyler was staring across the room at Damon, his brown eyes glinting with respect and she just sat there, smirking triumphantly at the scene around her.

Tyler nodded to Damon and flashed a smile to Elena before walking out of the door, his hands shoved into his pockets. Caroline looked back, her face unusually serious. "Thank you." She said softly before disappearing.

He sat there silently for a while, making her grin even more. "What are you smirking at then?" he asked, finally looking at her.

She cocked her head to he side and looking at him knowingly. "You know exactly what I'm smirking at."

He frowned at her and opened the blood bag and drank it down swiftly. She opened her own and slowly tried to drink it. She noticed Damon watching her closely ready it leap in if she lost control, but she kept it in check. "Damon made a friend. La la la la la la-a-a-a!" she sang playfully as she sprang off the stool to avoid his glare.

He growled at her and chased her around the kitchen, she darted away, a blur thanks to her vampire speed. She laughed freely before she ran into a hard body.

"Never. Again." He said seriously.

"Damon made a friend!" she squealed mockingly at first and then in shock afterwards as his hand clamped over her mouth.

"Never again." He repeated, still glaring at her. "I mean it."

She rolled her eyes and kissed him quickly, smiling softly against his lips as he pulled her closer to him and pressed her against the wall, molding his mouth to hers perfectly, moving in sync as if they had done it a thousand times before.

"I really do love you." She murmured, smiling sweetly up at him.

He shrugged, grinning playfully at her. "You're not so bad yourself."

He leant down to capture her lips with his own when the shrill ringing of a doorbell interrupted them. The sighed simultaneously and moved apart, wandering toward the door knowing there was no chance it could be some one friendly.

He reached for the door handle and swung the door open, barely registering their lack of clothing; he was in a pair of sweats while Elena was only dressed in his dress shirt that barely covered anything. He smirked to himself, he definitely wasn't complaining.

He was too preoccupied with his girlfriend's legs to notice who had arrived at the door.

"Stefan." She whispered, panicked, causing his head to shoot to the two figures in the doorway.

"Klaus." He hissed through gritted teeth. "What are you doing here?"

Klaus smiled infuriatingly and barged his way past both of them and into the parlor, Stefan close on his heels.

"Well you see Damon, most of my hybrids are dead and to make more, I need your pretty, little, doppelgänger girlfriend." He said pleasantly as he poured himself some bourbon. "It is girlfriend now, isn't it?" he raised an eyebrow and glanced obviously between Damon and Elena. "Considering your attire I would say I'm pretty accurate."

Elena glared at the intruder in his house. "I thought I needed to be human." She spat out in disgust.

Klaus raised a glass to them both before taking a drink casually. "Well that's where you little witchy friend comes in. Bonnie, if I remember correctly. She didn't stay much for chit chat after giving me my body back."

Damon sighed and made his usual, all knowing face at the hybrid invading his home. "In case you haven't noticed, Bonnie isn't exactly on the Christmas card list around here."

Klaus chuckled humorlessly. "Oh I'm aware, but she'll do _anything_ to make her human."

Stefan had remained silent during the whole exchange, brooding in a corner, glaring between him and Elena.

"And at this point that's all I really want, sweetheart, and I'll kill both you're little boyfriends until I get what I want." He downed the rest of his drink, slammed it down on the table, causing Damon to growl slightly in anger at the creaking of the ancient wood, and wandered out of the house whistling a merry tune.

* * *

_**GUYS, I'M ALIVE. AND I UPDATED**. Every single drop of creativity seems to have left my body since my last updating binge and i'm hating it! I seem to have inspiration for another fic i'm writing (It's on my laptop and not uploaded here yet - I refuse to put another fic up when I have 4 or so unfinished!)but nothing at all for this, 'Vagrants M.C' or 'Where Is The Heart?'! It's killing me. Also, I should not have uploaded 'What Is This?' so soon... definitely not with school and everything, four full length fics and my exams in a few months - yay. _

_**Vagrants M.C Readers**- Okay, next update is a work in progress, as above mentioned I'm having a hard time writing - normally I start writing and everything sort of follows through but I'm at the awkward stage in a lot of my stories where I'm not quite sure what could happen next, there are so many ways to go! _

_**Where Is The Heart? Readers- **I have actually been thinking about putting this on hiatus, i just can't get around to writing anything even though I know what I want to happen next! That's the worst part! I don't want to try writing a chapter that's actually a good enough filler before all the crazy stuff I might introduce in a couple chapters. Bleugh. Much love if you actually still follow it... it's disappeared from my e-mails recently..._

_**Whats Is This?-** This is almost getting it's second chapter up, I am considering deleting it and uploading it again when one other multi-chapter fic is finished but then again, what's the point in that?_

_If you actually made it this far down your pretty awesome and I guess you wanted to know why I haven't been uploading. Hope this is up to scratch and I definitely hope I might actually get another chapter up within the next week._

_Reviews would be amazing, as always. (might held with my lack of creativity *wink wink*) Also, one shots are my absolute love - prompts thorgh PM would be awesome and pretty fun to write._

_-E_


	15. How Crazy Would I Be

_Problemo Uno: There is Caroline/Klaus perspective in this chapter. So far this story has revolved around Elena and Damon but the scene between Caroline and Klaus didn't seem right written from the view point of Damon/Elena. Reviews and opinions would be much welcomed on this one. :3_

* * *

"How crazy would I be," Elena murmured softly, after a long stretch of silence. "If I said I didn't really want to be human again."

"Pretty crazy," Damon softly said, "If I could turn human again, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Elena's vampire hearing vaguely picked up the sound of Caroline and Tyler leaving the room. The moment the door swung shut, Damon's arms were wrapped around her softly, lending her comfort and warmth in the cage of his arms.

"If I _could_ be human, then I'd do it." She whispered into his soft shirt. "For you. If you wanted to be human again, I wouldn't want to be a vampire. Not without you."

Damon's still heart clenched inside of him. The small vampire in his arms was everything to him. A human Elena… He trailed off, not wanting to torture himself with images of her, laughing on a porch and surrounded by grandchildren. But still, here she was, the one girl he had been sure would have kids and get married and do the whole nine yards was now vampire and the possibility of forever with her seemed so close that he was just waiting for it to be torn away.

His hand reached her hair, twirling a strand of it around his finger. "I don't see another way." He murmured his voice muffled by her hair. "There's no way Klaus will drop it and just give up."

"There's always a way." She replied purely out of reflex.

His hand stilled. "Yeah." He pressed his lips to her temple. "There always is."

"One day, when this is all over. I'm going to tell you everything." She smiled as his words washed over her.

"I'd like that." She smirked and rolled over slightly so straddle him. "So Salvatore-" she kissed a trail down his chest.

"Don't even finish that sentence." He growled at her, his eyes dark as he wound his hands into her hair and crashed his lips to hers.

* * *

Caroline sat down heavily on the bench and glared at the world as people passed by, their lives unaffected and their minds untroubled by the supernatural.

She'd barely escaped from Tyler this morning, and that sentence right there, summed up the majority of her problems. She had woken up, and felt a stomach-churning urgency that had led her scrambling out of the room in the Boarding House she had grown to know as hers.

So here she was, sitting on a park bench in the town square praying he wouldn't look for her.

"Hello."

Caroline knew that voice. She desperately wanted to pretend she didn't but she had that voice memorized – from the charming accent to the way he drawled out words and that damn smirk that went with it.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to look at him, keeping her eyes solid blocks of slanting green ice.

"Hi." She said frostily.

"Caroline." He said, a rough pain skirting around the edges of his voice.

"Why did you do it?" she snapped, standing up to face him down. "Why did you want his body?"

"Because you love him." Klaus said, his voice sad and his eyes far away. "And I wanted to know, just for a little while, what it felt like to be loved by you."

Caroline gaped at him, her mouth falling open unattractively. "You don't have to use magic, and lies and manipulation to be loved by someone."

"No." he said, staring her down intensely. "_You_ don't, but for someone like me it's all I can really count on."

"What are you doing here, Klaus?" she asked wearily. "You have so many faces, I don't know who I'm talking to." With that, she backed away and unable to throw a look of disgust his way, she turned around and walked away.

"Caroline." He called after her. She stopped. "I think the better question is why _you_ are here."

She whirled around and stomped back towards him. "You got your boyfriend back." He said bitterly. "Yet you sit alone on a park bench in the town square."

"I wanted to be alone." She snapped.

"Nobody wants to be alone, Caroline. The world is different when you have no one to share it with."

Dumbstruck, she didn't know what to say next. "And that's why you have hybrids." She spoke slowly, waiting for him to contradict her. "Because you can't stand the thought of being alone."

"One thousand years on this earth and the only person who can barely stomach a conversation with me is you." His eyes bored into hers, the intensity of his suspicion blazed out more prominent than anything else. "A millennia of lifetimes and more faces than I can count and none stick out. Other than you."

"There are moments when you seem more human than the rest of us."

"There's still something redeemable in me, Caroline." He said, pleading with her internally. She hated the way he said her name. She hated the way he smirked at her. She hated his ability to somehow wind his way into her life and into her mind.

"I have a tendency to latch onto hopeless cases." She snapped dryly. "It's never worked out well."

Klaus stayed silent for a while. Caroline slowly began to walk away, turning back just before she turned around and left completely.

"You know, you don't _have_ to be alone forever. That's what you choose."

Her words shocked him and sliced through him deeper than he'd ever thought possible. He didn't know what to call the blonde walking away from him. She wasn't an enemy, wasn't an ally. There was no way she could be classed as a friend, but way down, right in his gut, he had a feeling that he could trust her.

Several hundred meters away, Caroline had reached the same conclusion.

* * *

A soft knock to the front door shattered the atmosphere that had been woven between Damon and Elena.

"Get the door." She groaned, rolling over and sliding his shirt over her mostly naked body.

"I can't." he retorted, sitting up stretching. "You've stolen my shirt."

Elena rolled her eyes and gestured grandly around the room they were sitting in. He scowled at her and slid his jeans back on, and just to tease her, leant casually against the closet door.

"Put a shirt on." She snapped, her smile taking the bite out of her words.

"Nope." Damon challenged. "I'll just answer the door like this, no?"

Elena frowned. Sure, she knew how deeply Damon's feelings went but she still didn't want some stranger seeing him looking quite so spectacular.

"Do I detect possessiveness, Gilbert?" he asked playfully, wandering out the room and heading down the stairs.

"Nah." She smirked, knowing exactly how to get to him. "I just figured I could answer the door while you make me food."

Damon stared her up and down incredulously. "You don't need food. You're dead."

She rolled her eyes and sped towards the door at vamp speed. "That's not fair!" Damon shouted after her, at the door only a second behind her. "I forget I don't have the advantage on you anymore." He whined.

Elena giggled and stuck her tongue out childishly. He retaliated by scrambling at her sides, making her squeal with laughter.

A louder knocking on the door made her yank the door open in frustration, not even glancing at the visitor, her eyes still locked on Damon who was frozen, staring stonily at the door.

"Witchy." He said viciously.

Elena narrowed her eyes. "I swear to god, Bonnie, If you're here for Klaus-"

"I can make you human, Elena." Bonnie started pleadingly. "You can get your life back."

"Being human wouldn't be a life for me, Bonnie. I'd be a blood bag. Did you never consider that?"

The words were directed at Bonnie, but Damon felt them hit home. Earlier, she had said she would turn human, for him. She would give up immortality and the burden of being the doppelgänger for him. So he wouldn't be alone. He moved to Elena's side and wound a strand of her hair slowly through his fingers.

"Elena, you can't want this." Bonnie said, in despair.

"I won't be a slave to Klaus because of who I am." She said vehemently.

With that, Damon's hand stilled and held flat to her head, he pressed it to his bare chest, dropping an innocent kiss on the crown of her hair.

"You can't escape it. You're a slave if you do, you're a slave if you don't."

"No. He has no use for me if I'm a vampire!"

"He'll _kill_ you Elena!" Bonnie pleaded desperately.

"Then I'll die!" Elena yelled violently, shaking with anger as she tore from Damon's grip. "That's what you want though don't you, all of us vampires dead?"

"Elena!" Bonnie gasped. "I never wanted you to die!"

"So you didn't want to kill Caroline when she first turned? You're telling me you don't want to kill Damon?" she snapped.

"I would never hurt Caroline!" Bonnie gasped. "I'd never hurt you!"

"You already have, Bonnie. You couldn't accept us because we weren't normal anymore?"

Damon scoffed quietly at her words.

"You aren't so normal yourself sunshine," he said lazily. Elena elbowed him.

"I've never killed anyone Elena. They have!"

"I killed someone too, and you have as well, Bonnie. The Gilbert Device you didn't disarm? People _died_ because you couldn't bend your pride to help someone because of your own _stupid_ beliefs! Mayor Lockwood. _Anna._ Not all vampires are bad, and Anna was just as human as the rest of us. Caroline became a vampire because she was so close to death after the car crash when the device affected Tyler that she needed vampire blood!" Bonnie froze; staring terrified by the vampire Elena had become.

"Hey." Damon said softly, noting her anger building. Elena was formidable angry now she was a vampire. "Calm down."

"No." Elena hissed, glaring at him.

"Do you want to hurt her, you idiot?" Damon rolled his eyes, grinning.

"Yes." She said bluntly.

Damon faltered for only a second before he regained his composure. "Is that the extent of your vocabulary? Yes and no?"

"Yes." A faint smile flicked around the edges of her lips, and just like that, the rage melted and all that was left was the fiery, strong vampire Elena he had fallen for all over again.

"You're not funny you know." She said, struggling to keep her face impassive. She glanced at Bonnie, and smiled sadly. "I won't be a blood bag. I won't live on anyone else's terms."

"Elena." Bonnie said, her eyes bright and glistening. "He's going to kill you."

"No, he won't." Damon snarled. Bonnie snapped her gaze to him, fear flickering through her eyes. "You're all big on dark magic now, Witchy?"

Bonnie nodded curtly.

"Then fix this." He hissed menacingly.

* * *

Klaus sighed and wandered into his mansion, gazing around the empty house and for the first time in centuries, Klaus wished for his family.

He poured himself a drink and settled on the balcony, staring up at the inky sky.

"Hi Nick." A voice said quietly from behind him.

"Hello, little sister." He replied wearily. "You killed my doppelgänger."

Rebekah bit her lip and for a second he glimpsed the young girl she really was. "I watched you die."

Klaus' resolve snapped and he broke the distance between them and enveloped his little sister in a tight hug. "I should dagger you."

Rebekah grinned against her brother's shoulder. "I thought Elijah took the daggers."

"Exactly." Klaus chuckled.

Rebekah smiled slightly and nodded her head slowly. "Goodnight Nick."

"Goodnight." He echoed softly.

As he once again, got lost in the inky depths of the starless sky, Klaus had nothing to distract his mind from the one Caroline Forbes, and the fact, that maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought.


	16. Bite

"Oh, you're in trouble." Damon hissed to no one in particular as he punched a number into his phone and held it impatiently against his ear.

"If you're going to yell at me, I'm hanging up." Elena said calmly through the phone. Damon concentrated on the noise around her; the faint whistling of wind through the air and the crunching of autumn leaves beneath her feet.

Damon growled. "Me and Blonide were just having a _great_ conversation. She was wondering where you were you know, which is odd, since you told me you were at her's."

Elena cursed him viciously even though he could hear her. "She used to pick up on stuff like this in a heartbeat."

"You're in trouble." He repeated in a low voice, his eyebrows making a deep V-shape in his forehead.

"Okay." Elena said patiently, waiting for him to continue. The crunching on the leaves stopped and he heard her tapping her foot impatiently against the frozen ground.

Damon narrowed his eyes at no one in particular. "You better not be going to make some absurd deal that's going to _kill you_."

"Don't be an idiot." He made an incredulous face at the phone; incredibly glad no one was around to see him.

"I'm not being an idiot, Elena. That's what you do. You like to make _deals_ which keep everyone safe except _you_."

"I'm not making him a deal, Damon." Elena said quietly, praying he would believe her.

"No. He'll demand you do something, you'll refuse and then faster than you can blink, you'll be _dead_." Damon hissed violently, terror seeping into his bones. There was silence on the other end of the line. Damon leant his forehead against the wall and punched it hard. "You know I'm be coming to find you the second I figure out where you are, don't you?"

"I guessed as much." Elena replied wryly. "I guess I'll see you later." She added hesitantly.

"Right. Bye." Damon said bluntly, hanging up and flinging his phone across the room, watching in grim satisfaction as it hit the wall and shattered with a satisfying crack.

There was Elena, damn Elena who felt her death would benefit everyone by keeping them safe when the only thing that had been safeguarding their safety had been her presence and that Klaus knew she would never cooperate if he so much as touched any of her friends. She was the thing that held their little dysfunctional group of friends together. You couldn't help but love her, and want to do everything to save her, so maybe she just wanted to save them for once.

"She went after Klaus." Caroline said angrily storming back into the room like a little blonde hurricane.

"Yes." Damon forced out through gritted teeth, restraining the urge to bite her head off. Literally.

"I shouldn't have said anything to you." Caroline said sadly, her voice wavering regretfully. "You're torturing yourself."

Damon scowled. "Because she's an _idiot_."

"She just wants to help."

"She can help by staying safe." He retorted, glaring at the blonde. "And you, Blondie, can go use your Blondie charm on Klaus and get him to disappear."

Caroline stared at him disbelievingly, all remorse gone from her tone. "You've _got_ to be kidding me."

"Nope." He said, drinking a big gulp of bourbon as he popped the 'p'. "Go work your magic and save your friend. The guy's got a thing for you, use it."

"He's not going to kill her." Caroline rolled her eyes. "Get real." She stood up abruptly.

"Elena is a _vampire_, Caroline," he snapped, standing up too so he was almost nose to nose with her, glaring into her green eyes that were dark with anger. "He wants her human. There is no way to cure vampirism. He. Will. Kill. Her." He yelled, his eyes blazing.

"There is a cure!" Caroline exploded suddenly. "Why do you think he demanded that you make her human? God, you're an idiot!" she yelled back, the small blonde causing Damon to take a step back in disbelief. "There's a cure, Damon! She can be human!" Her tirade stopped short, leaving a flushed Caroline glaring at him in the middle of the parlor for a moment before she stormed out with her head held high.

Damon gritted his teeth resignedly as he picked up his shattered phone, relieved to see that only his screen and most of the casing was unsalvageable and the actual mechanics of the horrid thing still worked. He scrolled through his contacts, glaring at the number that stayed programmed into his phone even after everything. He clenched his jaw and held the ringing mobile to his ear, cringing as the all too familiar voice sounded slickly at the other end.

"Miss me?" Katherine drawled seductively, her voice like syrup; too sweet and too damn sickly.

"Katherine." Damon said reluctantly. "You know there's only one reason I'd call."

Katherine was soundless on the other end of the phone, her fingernails tapping against a hard surface was the only noise sounding throughout the silent house. "And you know that unfortunately, I might be able to help." She said with surprising honesty suffused in her voice. She paused for a moment, a tense silence stretching between them before the click sounded and she was gone.

* * *

"Who has the cure?" Elena demanded sharply, stalking into Klaus' extravagant manor with more confidence than she felt.

"Elena!" Rebekah cried with mock enthusiasm, clapping her hands excitedly. "How lovely-"

"Elena," Klaus greeted with more sincerity. "I thought our deal was that you found the cure or I kill your little playthings? Or was I mistaken?"

Rebekah looked up, her eyes sharp and curious. "Playthings? This is _Elena_ we're talking to, correct?" she said spitefully, glaring at Katherine's mirror in all ways except one; Elena, however much Rebekah _despised_ her, was loyal and she understood loyalty before anything else.

"Quiet, Rebekah." Klaus groaned, waving his hand at his little sister impatiently. "Our little newborn has something to say."

Elena snorted unattractively, raising one dark eyebrow at Klaus as she folded her arms defiantly across her chest. "Who has the cure?"

"Isn't that part of our little game?" Klaus grinned sadistically, winking at her playfully.

"It is." She conceded, nodding to prove her point. Elena raised an eyebrow, and smiled back brightly. "That is, unless you want us shouting our mouths off to the whole damn world." She paused, her mask a mask of concentration. "Unless you want every witch listening to the whispers to know your plan. Unless you want every vampire ever created scouring the earth for a cure that may or may _not_ exist."

Klaus scowled at her, his eye glinting dangerously. "You tread a dangerous line." He warned stepping closer to her to he was chest to chest with the brave little vampire.

"I tread the lines that need to be treaded." She retorted angrily. "Who has the cure?" she demanded furiously, her chest brushing against Klaus' as she threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

Before she knew what was happening, she was trapped against the wall with Klaus' strong hand pressing against her windpipe. His dark pupils narrowed and widened out as he focused his gaze on her.

"What do you know?" he asked almost pleasantly, his blue eyes compelling her to answer. Elena glared at him, a dull fire burning through her eyes and she stared at him resolutely, pointedly ignoring the crushing pain in her throat.

"Oh leave off Nick." Rebekah said wearing, yanking her brother's arm away from Elena's throat. "She's on vervain."

Klaus sighed, and glared irritated at his little sister. Elena smirked smugly at Klaus, risking a puzzled look in the blonde's direction. She shrugged, an almost imperceptible movement of her shoulders. Klaus paused for a moment, his head tilting to the side in consideration before there was a flash of dark fabric, a sharp stinging in her neck and a flash of red-hot pain radiating down her spine before the lights went out and her world went dark.

* * *

Rebekah stared in disgust between her brother and the crumpled vampire of the floor. "You just going to leave her there until she wakes up?" she asked in disdain.

Klaus shrugged wiping his hands on his jeans. "She'll die eventually. An extra few hours won't do her any harm."

"With two Salvatores, a Bennett and god knows who else fighting for her life; you really think she'll die that easily?" Rebekah scoffed shaking her head amusedly. "Wishful thinking, Nick."

Klaus sighed, a twinge of remorse seeping into his bones as he crouched beside Elena's still body and swept her long dark hair away from her neck. "She'll die eventually." He repeated, motioning towards her neck as he stood up.

Rebekah stared at him aghast. "You bit her." She breathed; her eyes transfixed on the angry blood seeping wound on the doppelgänger's neck.

"Call it an incentive." Klaus grinned evilly, shrugging casually. "They find out how to turn her human, I cure her so they can do that. Simple."

"And if they don't find the cure?" Rebekah snapped angrily. There was no love lost between her and the little bitch currently temporarily dead on the floor but her brother's current method of manipulation crossed even her lines.

"Then she dies." Klaus said flippantly. "Call someone would you? I don't want her around the furniture when she starts hallucinating."

With that, Klaus stalked out of the room, whistling a merry tune that echoed throughout the vacant house. Rebekah stared between Elena and the unfilled doorframe her brother had previously stood in. She shook her head, unable to believe that in the feud between her family and what had become Elena's she wasn't siding with her brother. Her thumb hovered over the call button for a moment, unsure of whether they would see the truth in her words.

"Original bitch; planning more torture?" Damon said flippantly as the dialing tone stopped, his tone heavily skeptical. "And has your brother agreed to some idiotic deal with Elena?" he added reluctantly after a minute's pause.

Rebekah closed her eyes. She couldn't have called a worse person to deliver this particular news to. "He snapped her neck." She said quietly, trying to sound unaffected. Damon cursed violently and hung up abruptly. The blonde sighed loudly, placing her mobile on the small end table by the couch.

It wasn't long before she heard Damon's approach sounding from the driveway. She wandered into the hallway, gesturing shakily into the parlor as he burst into the lobby uninvited. "What did she say that pissed him off so bad he felt the need to kill her?" he groaned as he crouched down beside Elena, stroking her cheek gently with one finger. "You're such an idiot, Elena." He scowled, pulling her into his arms and straightening up, carrying her securely in his grip.

Rebekah stared sadly at the dark haired vampire, glaring furiously and staring at her with burning eyes. She moved doubtfully closer to them both, reaching out with her hand and slowly brushing Elena's hair away from her neck, revealing the angry mar in her perfect skin in all it's bloody glory. "He bit her." She explained unnecessarily, looking regretfully between them both. Damon's eyes met hers, emotions raging beneath the icy layer shielding both his heart and his eyes.

Damon closed his eyes; his jaw clenched tightly causing a vein to throb in his neck with the effort of holding himself together. He pressed his mouth to her hairline, keeping his eyes squeezed tight. He took a deep shuddering breath, allowing himself only one moment of hopelessness before he opened his eyes, nodded once to Rebekah and left the ancient house with the walk of a world-weary man with no hope left in the world.

"I'm sorry." She called suddenly after him, causing his step to falter slightly. "I know what she means to you."

Damon glanced over her shoulder, meeting her eyes with an impenetrable gaze. He nodded again, more than just a nod of courtesy or thanks. Rebekah watched as the vampire walked out of the house with the weight of the world resting heavily upon his heart.

Damon arrived back at the boarding house in record time, his blue Camaro pulling into the driveway as he attempted to hold himself together. "Did you get her?" Caroline asked anxiously the second he was within hearing distance. She was standing on the doorstep, her green eyes focused on his blue, eyeing him with concern. Damon sat motionless in the cab of his car, one hand resting carelessly on the steering wheel. He got out slowly, pulling Elena into his arms and carrying her gently into the house, brushing past Caroline and walked wearily upstairs, laying her still form on his sheets.

He retreated to the wall, leaning against the wooden doorframe as he stared hopelessly at the woman he loved, dead on the cool sheets. He heard Caroline behind him; he glanced back at her for a moment, registering her standing beside him, leaning against the opposite side of the doorframe.

"When do you reckon she'll wake up?" she asked softly, looking upset. Damon couldn't bear to tell her the truth; the wolf toxins were sapping her body's resources – she might _not_ wake up. In a way she was grateful for that, she at least would be saved from the agonizing pain.

"Caroline," Damon said hoarsely, looking at Elena's best friend. Somewhere deep within his mind, he registered that for the first time in a long time, he had called her by name.

"What?" she asked urgently, standing up straight and looking at him with wide, anxious eyes.

Damon ran his fingers restlessly through his hair and walked over to the bed, squatting next to it and leaning his forearms on the soft sheets. He leant his head wearily in one hand while the other gently pushed the hair away from her neck. He looked up brokenly at Caroline, his voice shaking as he spoke the next sentence.

"What am I supposed to do?"

Caroline dropped to her knees at the foot of the bed, her mouth covered by trembling hands. "We need Klaus' blood." She said in an awful attempt to be positive. "He healed you, right? She just needs his blood." Part of her knew what was coming next.

"Klaus was the one who bit her." He added in a rough voice, leaning his head in his hands. Caroline swallowed roughly, all hope that deep inside Klaus there was goodness, was gone.

"I have to go." Caroline said suddenly, standing up quickly and leaving the room in less than a heartbeat leaving Damon alone with only his tortured thoughts.

Elena let out a deep shuddering breath, her hands grabbing his bicep desperately as she gasped loudly, her brown eyes huge and terrified. "Damon." She gasped breathlessly, clutching his arm with an unbreakable grip as her bones cracked painfully, sliding back into place.

He moved closer to her, stroking her hair back from her forehead with one head, looking into her eyes and slowly calming her with his soothing touch. "Hey, hey. You're okay." He dropped a soft kiss to her forehead, murmuring sweet words against her unnaturally hot skin. He threaded one hand through hers while her other gripped the hand he was stroking softly against her face.

She breathed deeply a few more times, leaning her head back against the pillows as she sat up, pulling away from Damon's hand. "You make it seem easier." She said easily, ignoring the burning pain spreading through her body.

"I make what seem easier?" he asked, chuckling and he folded his arms across her stomach and leant his chin on his arms.

"Getting your neck snapped." She clarified, grinning ruefully. "Everyone makes it seem easier that it feels."

Damon cleared his throat softly. "How _do_ you feel?" he asked softly, trying to keep the majority of the worry he was feeling out of his voice.

Elena groaned and she played absently with his dark hair. "Like I'm on fire." She admitted regretfully, running her free hand through her hair.

Damon gritted his teeth, showing no outward signs of distress. He remembered it like it was only a day ago: the burning hot fire spreading through his veins as the wolf toxin took hold; the shooting pains; the painful hallucinations; the unbearable pain that overtook your body for minutes at a time. He remembered it all, right down to the hours at the end, where he had lain in Elena's arms, waiting for the stake to finally pierce his heart.

"What's wrong?" she whispered softly, sliding down and turning her body so her face was in line with his.

"Everything." He confessed, burying his head in his shaking hands. Elena cupped his hands with her own, trying to peel them away from his face.

"You're shaking." She noted incredulously, finally succeeding in pulling Damon's hands away and she was met with his piercing blue eyes, swimming with desperateness. She pulled his hands to her lips and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. "You're cold." She exclaimed in surprise, holding the back of his hand against her cheek reveling in his cold touch.

Damon shook his head sadly and pressed two cool hands to her burning cheeks and pressed a sweet kiss to her forehead. "I'm not cold; you're warm." He murmured roughly, gently gathering all her hair over one shoulder. He pressed a kiss to her bared collarbone. He moved his thumb across her neck, spreading a smear of red across his finger.

She furrowed her brow and clapped her hand to her neck, hissing in pain and her skin made contact with the tender wound. Her frown disappeared, a dulled look of terror setting into her features. "He bit me." She gasped desperately, holding her hand over her neck in hopes that it would disappear. Her mouth couldn't seem to form coherent sentences as her mouth opened and closed ridiculously. Klaus had bitten her; Klaus wouldn't heal her.

"I'm going to die." She whispered subconsciously. Damon growled at her, lifting himself up from the floor and settling on the bed next to her.

"You're not going to die." He said adamantly, winding his arms around her and pulling her close to his chest. "We'll survive this." He whispered to her, kissing her hair fiercely. A faint smile ghosted across his lips as he echoed the words she'd said to him all those months ago. "We always survive."

* * *

_**A/N: Greetings strangers, remember me? It's been so long since I last updated I wouldn't be surprised if you'd all forgotten. Hope you likey. **_


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